


Fired Up

by Jinxi222



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Art, Ceramics, Clay - Freeform, Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Langst, M/M, Mutual Pining, My First Fanfic, Past Abuse Mention, Past Relationship(s), Pining, Tags Are Hard, pottery, so much langst, so much pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2018-10-05 14:57:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 54,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10310783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinxi222/pseuds/Jinxi222
Summary: Keith got a job at Castle Ceramics Studio, firing kilns. Unfortunately he finds the the kilns aren't the only things being fired up when he starts to meet his coworkers.The ceramics AU that my friend and I decided needs to exist.And a reason for Klance to do the Ghost thing with the pottery wheel. Because why not?





	1. Welcome To Castle Ceramics Studio

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what I'm doing
> 
> feedback is appreciated.
> 
> this is my first ever fanfiction
> 
> Thank you for reading!

Keith looked down at the address on his phone, then up to the old colorful sign proudly marking Castle Ceramics Studio. A lion figure stretched out, making out the ‘s’ of the sign with its tail. 

He sighed _guess this is the place._

Keith’s only friend, Shiro, had offered him the job of kiln tech at his girlfriend’s pottery studio, the fact that she had agreed to hire him without an interview was beyond him. Having been fired from several customer service jobs for being ‘too hot headed’ and ‘confrontational’ with clients, he decided that it must have been Shiro’s charms that got him the job. All the years that Keith had known him, he had never seen anyone turn Shiro down for anything, and even if they tried, Shiro could talk his way around it. Either way he was here, his new job through the door ahead of him.

Taking a deep breath Keith pushed open the door and stepped inside, immediately sneezing from the smell of clay and dirt that hung heavy in the air.

At his not-so-quiet entrance Shiro looked over from a conversation he was having with a beautiful woman with white hair pulled up into a large bun. From his endless gushing over her, Keith recognized her immediately as his girlfriend, Allura. Shiro waved him over, and Keith had no other reason to hang around the door so he obliged. “Allura, this is Keith, my friend that I was telling you would be a perfect fit here in the castle.” Shiro claimed proudly, placing his warm hand on Keith’s shoulder, his prosthetic arm holding a bucket full of pottery tools. 

“Pleasure to meet you, Keith.” Allura said in an accent that made her sound like a princess or queen. “Shiro has told me so much about you, I think you will make a fine kiln technician. We could really use the help.”

“Uh, nice to meet you too, Allura.” Keith said, shaking her hand as he mentally kicked himself for being horrible at simple interactions. “Thank you for the opportunity.” He smiled.

“You’re welcome, Keith, I’m sure you won’t let me down. Well, I’ll let you two get started, Keith has a lot to learn and I have a lot to do.” Allura told Shiro, dismissing the both of them as she hurried off to her office, Shiro with a kiss on the cheek, and Keith with a small nod.

Keith looked around the colorful studio, the racks of pottery, rolling carts, then of course the wheels and tables. The space was large and had a central chandelier made of pieces of porcelain. A small sense of dread filled him when he saw the seats were all filled, the feeling lessening when he saw the friendly smile of the teacher. He was a large guy with an orange headband tied around his head, and a kind face that could put anyone at ease. When his gaze met Keith’s he grinned and gave a nod, which Keith returned.

“Ready to get started?” Shiro asked, startling him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah,”

“Good, lets start with the tour. This is the main studio area, it has wheels, tables, wedging surfaces, and sinks. The drying racks are through that doorway,” he gestured to a blue archway, “and the bisque area is the one next to it.” This one was a yellow arch. “Then the finished glaze pieces are put in that room over there.” He gestured to the other side of the room with a red archway, windows displaying finished glazed work. “The guy with the orange headband is Hunk, he’s the resident pottery master, and teaches a lot of our classes.” Shiro started walking towards a black archway leading to a small shop full of tools and schedules of upcoming classes, “This here is the shop, it’s not much but it has what potters would need and some snacks if you’re ever starving. In the back corner is the cage” he gestured to a sectioned off area with a locking gate that had clay and other important items kept in it for safety measures, “be careful not to get locked in.”

Keith had started to tune Shiro out at this point, because the worker behind the counter had caught his eye. He had the bluest eyes Keith had ever seen and was talking animatedly with a customer, like conversation was the easiest thing in the world to him. The man commanded attention, and- and he noticed Shiro was waiting for a response. “Huh?” 

Shiro shook his head and sighed, giving him the ‘disappointed dad’ face. “I asked if you wanted to meet Lance now, but I think it can wait, he has a lot of customers right now.” There was that knowing smirk.

Keith sighed and blushed, mumbling “whatever,” under his breath as he followed Shiro through the classroom - where everyone was currently watching Hunk do a wheel demonstration- out to the back where the kilns were. 

“Here are the kilns, we’ll be spending a lot of time out here.”

“We?”

“Well, mostly you, but for now I’ll be training you to make sure things go smoothly. It’s just a precaution. Kilns can be dangerous, and we have a lot of artists whose work needs to be handled properly. We don’t want any customers to be upset because of something that was our fault.” At this Keith scoffed quietly, earning a small smile from Shiro. “Let me show you the staff rooms, and where Allura’s office is.”

With that they went through a separate door into a room with some lockers, and a green archway to the classroom. “This is where everyone stores their things, but we have staff lockers too.” They then went into an orange door marked ‘employees only’. There were fewer lockers and cubbies here, along with some tables, chairs, a t.v., a fridge, and small kitchen area, as well as someone passed out on a couch.

“That’s Pidge, it’s best not to wake them.” Shiro said quietly as they passed by. They passed through a pink door into an office area, Allura glancing up from a phone call and paperwork with a smile. “This here is the office, there’s a first aid kit in here if you need it, but I keep one by the kilns as well.” He said softly, then waved to Allura as they turned to leave. “So that’s about it. It’s a pretty small place.” 

“I wouldn’t call it small.” Keith said, forgetting they were supposed to be quiet. There was a noise and he ducked when he saw something in his peripheral vision, barely dodging a pillow. Pidge mumbled something angrily then turned on their side to go back to sleep.

“Never wake Pidge.” Shiro chuckled.

“Noted.” Keith blinked, wondering how someone so small could have so much anger in them.

When they were back outside by the kilns, they got to work loading and Shiro going over the proper way to fire each of their kilns. It was a few hours until the last one they got to work on which happened to be the biggest one that was painted like a cow. “Should I even ask?”

“Lance painted it, and dubbed it Kaltenecker.” Shiro patted the side of the large rolling kiln “It’s our pride and joy here, since it does most of our glaze firing.” Keith had trouble holding in laughter. “What is it?”

“Why a cow?”

“Uh, why not a cow?” a sarcastic voice challenged. Lance was leaning against the door to the classroom, one perfect eyebrow raised, and Keith decided then and there that Lance was simply a pretty face and not someone he wanted to actually be with.

“I was just wondering what-“

Lance held up a hand “Ah bup pup up, don’t you ‘I was just wondering what-‘ me! It’s a perfect piece of art!”

“I never said that it wasn’t!” Keith huffed indignantly, stepping towards Lance , who met him with two steps forward.

“Well why didn’t you-“

Shiro got between them and put a hand on both their shoulders “Okay you two, that’s enough.” He gave Lance a stern look “Don’t give him a rough time on his first day, you know we need a new kiln tech.”

“Hmph, he started it.” Lance pouted.

“I what?”

“Lance” Shiro said in his warning tone “Introduce yourself properly.”

Lance held out his hand with a roll of his eyes “I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”

“I haven’t heard of you before today.” Keith blinked, shaking his hand.

He looked taken aback “Uh, the name’s Lance.”

“And?”

“And!?” Lance squawked “My work has made it into magazines, I’ll have you know.” He paused then smirked mischievously. “Or maybe you know me by my other name.”

“And what would that be?”

“They call me coffee because I grind so fi-“

“Lance” Shiro warned in his dad voice. “This is Keith, he’ll be our new kiln tech, so be nice and maybe he won’t mess up your pots.”

“I’d say nice to meet you, but I’m still not sure if that’s accurate.” Keith scoffed, ignoring his blush, and smiling when Lance huffed and walked away with his hands up in the air.

“Well, not many people can make Lance be quiet, you’ll do just fine here.” Shiro laughed as the lanky potter dramatically went to the staff room.

“I hope so…” Keith sighed _what have I gotten myself into?_ He thought.


	2. Kaltenecker and Kittens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Firing kilns, and meeting the residents and potters of Castle Ceramics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a special thanks to my beta reader find her on tumblr. @deploybun I'm on there too as @lilmsflash

At eight the next day o’clock Keith met Shiro in the staff room. As he was putting his things away Shiro handed Keith his new apron, a red one with the logo of the studio on the front, just like Shiro’s black apron. Keith put it on then looked to Shiro’s “Why do I have a red one?”

“They’re in all different colors, I guess Allura thought you liked red because of the jacket you always wear.” Shiro shrugged, “Is there a problem with it?”

“No, I like it, I was just wondering if it meant anything.” Keith moved to go out to the kilns but was stopped by Shiro who guided him towards the main studio where Pidge, Hunk, and Lance were all working on the wheels, Lance prattling on about something to them.

Pidge seemed much more friendly while awake, waving tiredly to Keith and Shiro. They were making very tiny delicate teacups out of what looked like porcelain, some of them so thin they seemed almost translucent. Small swirls and divots decorated the sides, they seemed so perfect and they were nowhere near done.

Their wave alerted the others, and Hunk smiled, looking up from the large, bowl-like form he was throwing out of a very dark clay. 

“Oh great it’s you again.” Lance huffed when he saw Keith, instantly making Keith’s mood sour. He looked to what Lance was making, a very tall slender shape made from a lightly colored clay. Keith thought it looked absolutely stunning, Lance’s skin contrasting with the clay in a very pleasing manner. The small base and rounded sides sloping upwards into a very tall neck with a flared point at the end. 

“I could say the sa-Wow, that looks so cool” Keith said, walking over, his eye catching a look at what Lance was making. 

Lance blinked, looking flustered before composing his usual facade and gesturing to the pot then himself “Oh you mean this beautiful thing that I’m making? Try not to be too overwhelmed, I know it’s a masterpiece, but it’s not even finished yet!”

Pidge scoffed “Don’t stroke his ego, Keith. My name is Pidge, by the way, I don’t think we got off to a good start yesterday. Sorry about that, I guess.” they added when Shiro gave them a look.

“Oh um… it’s fine, I should have been more quiet.” Keith smiled.

“Oh my gosh, you woke up Pidge? You survived their wrath? Wow. Oh, my name is Hunk by the way, we didn’t get a chance to meet yesterday because of classes.” Hunk stood, walking over and offering Keith a clay covered hand, which Keith shook before frowning at the clay sludge covering his hand. “Oops, sorry about that, forgot I had slip on my hands.” Hunk chuckled, wiping his hands on his apron.

“Heh, it’s fine, bound to happen around here, right?” Keith smiled, wiping the slip off on his own apron. 

“Incase you haven’t heard by now; Keith is going to be our new kiln tech. Oh, I need to go check on some things for my class later, I’ll be right back. Hey, maybe you guys can show him how to throw on the potter's wheel later today. I don’t think he’s ever been on one.” Shiro added, the three of them perked up at this, staring at Keith and making him uncomfortable.

“Never been on a pottery wheel!?” Lance blurted “We’ll change that, mullet, just you wait.”

“Mullet?” Keith asked, reaching up to touch his hair.

“Yeah, what is this the 80’s?”

“Ei-eighties?!” Keith scoffed, getting riled up easily.

“Ignore him, Keith, he hasn’t had his starbucks today yet.” Hunk smiled reassuringly, “I like your hair.”

“Uh- thanks?” He was already starting to feel overwhelmed by all the social interaction.

Lance made a scoffing noise and went back to throwing, muttering about mullets and bad taste under his breath. Keith’s looked over to Pidge who was pushing up their glasses with their arm. “So if you’ve   
never been on a pottery wheel, how did you hear about this place?”

“Shiro actually helped me get this job.” Keith admitted, running a hand through his hair then pulling it into a small pony-tail, and was Lance watching him? No that’s just silly he thought. 

Pidge nodded with a smirk, “I thought I heard him convincing Allura to hire someone.”

“Darn, I owe you coffee.” Hunk sighed, shaking his head with a small smile, “Never bet against Pidge, they know everything.”

“Noted.” Keith laughed, glancing at Lance. He then found himself completely hypnotized by strong arms moving and shaping the clay like it was subject to his every whim. Pidge and Hunk talked about something else amongst themselves, so Keith was free to stare and get lost in the contrast between Lance’s talented fingers and the soft, white clay he was shaping into tall, slender, organic forms.

Suddenly Lance’s hands moved away and the vase stopped spinning. “Can’t keep your eyes off me, hmm? I can’t blame you, I’m pretty easy on the eyes.” he said with a wink that had Keith turning and seeing red.

“What? No, I just… It’s hypnotizing when the clay is spinning and moving and- I wasn’t staring at you.” Keith huffed, crossing his arms.

Lance seemed to deflate a little, “Whatever you have to tell yourself to feel better, Mullet-head.”

“What are you, four?” 

“I know you are but what am I?”

“Two years old apparently.” Keith fired back immediately. Pidge cackled as Hunk tried to hold back his laughter like a good friend.

Lance stood up and marched up to Keith, getting in his face. “Well I think you-”

“Lance, what are you doing?” Shiro’s voice was authoritative, and shut Lance up immediately. He walked over and pulled Lance away from Keith “Remember what I told you yesterday? Keith’s going to be handling all your stuff so you better be nice to him.” he smiled, and Lance walked away, muttering about betrayal.

“Thanks Shiro…” Keith said quietly, unclenching the fists he had unconsciously made out of reflex.

“Come on Keith, we have some kilns to fire.” Shiro smiled, walking out to where the kilns were kept, Keith following close behind. “You’ll be on your own later in the day so I want to be able to cover everything.” 

“Do you teach a class later?”

“Yeah, it’s my advance ceramic sculpture class. You should sit in sometime. It would help me stay sane.”

Keith had a hard time imagining Shiro being anything but calm and collected. “Tough class?”

“Just one of the artists. He spends weeks and weeks on several projects at once and asks all these hypothetical questions about everything and ugh!” Shiro was visibly starting to get upset just thinking about it, and Keith decided he wouldn’t take Shiro’s offer of sitting in if it was that bad. “Those meticulous geometric sculptures need to be handled with care or neither of us will hear the end of it, trust me.” 

“The ones that say Slav or something on the bottom?”

“Exactly those.” Shiro sighed “Oh, and if you ever need help lifting Hunk’s work don’t be afraid to ask.”

“Does he always throw big things?”

“Not always, but it is his specialty. Which is impressive because it’s hard to work with that much clay at once. But he is our resident master potter for a reason.” Shiro smiled proudly, like Hunk was his kid.

“That’s pretty cool.” Keith shrugged, not quite understanding the difficulties of the pottery wheel just yet. “What about Allura?”

“Oh she’s a master for sure, but she’s always so busy running the business aspects of the place she hardly gets to work on anything.” Shiro’s expression got loving as he talked about his girlfriend. “We used to come in after hours and work on the wheels together and sometimes we’d even-”

“O-kay, sooo kilns?” Keith smirked as Shiro huffed.

“I wasn’t going to say anything inappropriate, Keith.” He rolled his eyes then they got to work on firing and the proper procedures for the kilns. Eventually Keith started to get the hang of it and Shiro had to go inside to teach his class, leaving Keith with his thoughts and Kaltenecker. 

Once it was going Keith heard a strange scratching noise and went to the back door that lead to the alley to investigate.  
Opening the door he was surprised to see a group of stray kittens, all meowing and walking inside, rubbing against him, lead by an older black cat. “Uh… hey there… kitties?” he said, confused.

“Oh, I see you’ve met the cats!” Lance’s voice rang out, he shook a bag and the kittens all ran over to him as he poured a bowl of food. “We have momma Luna,” he pointed to the black cat “She likes Shiro. My precious baby Blue.” He picked up a dark gray kitten with one white paw then set it down. “Pidge’s kitten that she named Rover for whatever reason.” He pointed to a calico cat. “Hunk’s cat, Poppy,” He pointed out a tan kitten that mewled in response. “Then the red one no one’s claimed because he’s a little jerk.” he looked around then blinked because the kitten in question was rubbing up against Keith’s leg. “Huh, seems it likes you.” 

Keith reached down and pet it, then picked it up, “She doesn’t seem like a jerk.” he said as it cuddled his chest.

“What will you name her then? She chose you after all.” Lance gave a soft smile at the scene of Keith.

“Uh… I’ll name her… Red, because she’s… red.” Keith said, cuddling the cat back.

“Red? What kind of name is red?”

“You named yours blue! How is that different?” Keith huffed. 

“Because she’s got the bluest eyes, ever!” Lance blushed, realizing he had been called out.

“Oh- it seems you two already are feeding the kittens.” Allura interrupted, carrying a bowl of cat food as herself out from the locker room. All the kittens meowed and went to greet her, Keith setting Red down as she squirmed.

“Yeah and the red one likes Keith.”

“Oh really? Did you name her? She hardly likes anyone, and is very temperamental.” Allura smiled.

“I named her Red.” Keith worried about her reaction, but Allura only smiled and nodded.

“Red is a lovely name. Fitting that it matches Blue’s name as well.” 

“What does that mean?” Lance huffed.

“Well Red and Blue are always cuddling together, they’re the closest. Didn’t you notice?” Allura winked at Keith and Lance before petting the kittens then walking back to go inside “Well, I best get back to work, make sure they get fed properly.” With that she left the two of them wondering if she meant something by that comment.


	3. Bonding Moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AKA the super fluffy fluff chapter of fluff

Keith decided that Lance was secretly an okay guy. They had spent a good half hour together, playing with the kittens. Lance had run inside to bring out some toys he made for them, and though he would never admit it, Keith thought that it was absolutely adorable. They weren’t even bickering, just cooing at the kittens and laughing as the small little balls of fluff tumbled and got tangled in strings.

Shiro walked out to check on Keith then paused when he saw them with the kittens, actually getting along. He tried to make a stealthy retreat but Luna had spotted him and walked over with a happy meow, the kittens echoing her. The younger men looked up at him, each holding their respective cats. “Oh, hey Shiro.” Lance smiled, like there was nothing strange going on.

“What’s up?” Shiro raised an eyebrow, picking up Luna.

“Just playing with the kittens, oh! Keith named the last one Red.” Lance replied, booping Blue on the nose.

“Fitting.” Shiro smirked

“That’s what Allura said.” Keith gave him a questioning look, but Shiro only laughed. 

“We need to check on the kilns, so you’ll need to set Red down, Keith.”

“Oh, right, okay.” Keith put Red down on the ground but the kitten jumped and climbed up to his shoulder. “No, you need to stay down.” He set the cat down again then stood, looking sadly at the kitten who was pawing at his leg.

“Red really likes you.” Lance giggled, then set Blue down. The kitten promptly went to tackle Red, the two of them playing then cuddling each other. 

“Maybe you two will get along that well someday.” Shiro joked, setting Luna down before walking past them, the cat on his heels. 

Lance and Keith stared at each other, their cheeks heating before they glared at Shiro and simultaneously proclaimed, “Not gonna happen.”

Shiro simply laughed “Well, I can check the kilns. Lance, why don’t you try teaching Keith how to throw on the pottery wheel.”

“What?” Keith blinked, thinking Shiro was crazy, or at least was trying to plan something. 

Lance put his arm around Keith, “Don’t worry, Keith, with me as your teacher you’ll be throwing pottery in no time. I am a master after all.” He winked then guided Keith inside. Keith looked back Shiro with a glare, only to be met with a smile and a wave. Traitor.

Lance sat Keith down at a wheel and then went to get some tools and a bucket of water, then some balls of clay. He then sat down next to Keith, turning on their wheels before showing him how the pedal worked. “Okay so first you take some clay… then you put it on the wheel, but you want to kind of use some force to put it on there like this.” He tossed the clay onto the wheel then patted it into place, spinning the wheel to show it was stuck. Keith copied him and Lance gave him an approving nod and a grin that Keith wanted to see more of. “Next we get some water on there and while it’s spinning we want to press into it like this to make a cone shape.” He demonstrated then brought the cone shape back into a dome. “Then we bend it forwards and down to get this. This is called centering the clay, and it’s very important.” Keith nodded, it looked so simple when Lance did it. What he didn’t expect was to mess up so badly, the clay being stronger than he thought and a large chunk of it coming off in his hands. Lance started laughing, making Keith mad.

“It’s not as easy as you make it look!” he huffed, getting easily frustrated.

“Sorry, sorry…” Lance tried to control his laughter “The face you made was so shocked.” He stood and cleaned Keith’s wheel off and put on a new ball of clay, getting it started, standing next to Keith, hip and leg brushing against him. “Here, put your hands like… no, uh… here.” He stood then Keith heard a stool move, next thing he knew, Lance was pressed up against his back, hands over his and chin over his shoulder. Needless to say, Keith was red to the tips of his ears and tensed all of his muscles. “Relax and let me guide your hands.” Lance said, breath caressing Keith’s cheek. Keith did as he was told and focused on the clay to keep himself from losing it. Lance guided his hands and provided extra support and pressure. He showed Keith how to place his elbow inside his thigh and press in with his leg, Lance’s leg pressing against his to show him the correct pressure. To Keith it was very intimate and new, but to Lance it was something he often did when flirting with beginners who needed help on the wheel. “There we go, now it’s centered, feel that?” He placed his hands over Keith’s on the mound of clay they had formed, no more wobbling coming from them. 

“Y-yeah… wow.” Keith stuttered, internally screaming, he smiled and turned his head slightly to look at Lance who smiled back, blinking.

“Uh… like-... um… wow…”

“What?”

“Nothing, It’s just, you’re so beautiful you made me forget my pick up line.” For a second they were silent then Lance put on a cocky grin and _actually winked_ at him.

Keith didn’t take it well. “Stop messing with me, you jerk. Do you do that to everyone?” He growled, Lance’s eyes widened and he laughed nervously, standing and holding his hands up.

“Hey, hey, okay, wow, calm down, sorry. Geez.” Lance said, going back to his own wheel and hiding his emotions behind a chuckle, “Had you going though, didn’t I?” He smirked and gave Keith finger guns. 

Keith sensed something off, a hint of sadness in Lance’s laugh, and had the small hope that maybe it wasn’t a joke after all, and his blush came back full force. “I-sorry.. I’m sorry for reacting like that. I’m not used to people.” He admitted, hoping to cheer Lance up.

“Well get used to it, because we aren’t done yet. Next we need to open the clay.” He turned back to the wheel, putting more water on the clay, “You set your fingers like this then slowly press down until you’re close to the bottom.” He demonstrated, making it look like the easiest thing ever, but Keith learned his lesson the first time and eyed his own clay warily. His pride and competitive nature got the better of him and he copied Lance, finding this part easier. “Good, now we can start pulling. Position your fingers like this, and you want to keep them together, applying pressure to both sides of the wall. Make a groove then pull the clay up. Like this.” He demonstrated a perfect pull, the clay forming a nice cylinder. Keith watched, then attempted, doing nothing but putting a swirl in the wall of the clay. Lance smirked again and stood, getting behind and pressing against Keith again. “Here, like this, put your hands on mine and feel what I’m doing.”

Keith did as he was told, gently placing his hands over Lance’s and letting himself be guided. Lance had him try, but Keith wasn’t paying attention to the method, more interested in the feeling of Lance’s body pressed against his back. “Uh… I need to see it one more time.” Keith said, a blushing mess made worse by the feeling of the vibrations from Lance’s beautiful laugh. Lance was patient though, and guided him once more, not applying too much pressure, just making the movements. Keith tried it, a smile playing on his lips as their hands switched, Lance’s fingers pressing and applying corrections, together they made a cylinder. “Wow, this is… um… this is so neat.”

“Neat?” Lance asked, smirk clear in his voice, “I’ve heard a lot of things, but never ‘neat’.” He slowly leaned forwards into Keith again, taking his hands and positioning them in a new way. “So here’s how you shape a pot…” 

They continued on like that for about ten minutes, shaping the clay, pressed up against each other. Lance then let Keith work on it on his own, returning to his own work and creating a beautiful vase. Keith had managed to make the clay too thin on his pot and the walls collapsed. He frowned at it, looking upset. “Hey don’t frown, you never know who’s falling in love with your smile.” Lance all but purred at him, this got a smile for all of a second before Keith glared at him. “But seriously, it happens all the time when you’re starting out. Here, now you just start over.” Lance showed him how to take the pot off the wheel then put a new ball of clay on. They sat next to each other and worked on their wheels, Lance offering instructions and when Keith got frustrated Lance got back behind him to help out. 

They were pressed together and centering again when Shiro came inside. He stared for a second, walking up behind them to Lance talking about the process of centering in Keith’s blushing ear with a voice he didn’t normally use to teach students. Shiro cleared his throat and they both jumped, Lance actually managing to fall off the stool. “Uh h-hey Shiro.” Lance grinned, Shiro just frowned and crossed his arms.

“Lance can I talk to you in private for a minute?” He said in his dad voice. Keith blinked as Shiro put a hand on Lance’s shoulder and guided him out of the room, looking over his shoulder to tell Keith, “Keep working, you’ve almost got it down.” Keith felt absolutely flustered, and unsure why he felt guilty about being taught by Lance. Keith sighed and finished making his bowl, and was frowning at the ugly thing when Shiro came back out. “Lance went to get ready for his class. Wow, that looks great, Keith!” He said supportively. 

“Are we looking at the same thing? This is hideous.” Keith scowled, and Shiro laughed

“It’s great for a first try.” Shiro assured “Let's keep it. If only for sentimental reasons.”

“Fine.” Keith relented, but truthfully, he was a little bit proud of himself.

“Let's clean up and finish checking the kilns, they’re almost ready to be shut off.” Shiro smiled, helping Keith clean up his area. 

About an hour later, Keith went to the locker room, putting his apron up and clocking out for lunch. He then went out through the classroom, passing by the wheels where Lance was helping a student. Keith stopped, staring for a second, because Lance’s teaching method was drastically different from their private lesson. Lance was standing to the side, instructing with his voice and only using light touches when he had to for corrections. No flirting, no pressing against anyone. Lance sensed Keith staring and looked over, giving him a wink before returning to his teaching. Keith rushed out of the building, blush creeping up his neck as he realized that Lance had actually been flirting with him that whole time.


	4. Glazing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Hunk! Because every fic needs more Pidge and Hunk!
> 
> Also pottery glaze shenanigans

When Keith returned from lunch he put his apron back on and went towards the work area, stopping when he saw a few drops that looked suspiciously like blood on the floor. Worried, he followed it to the sink, then traced it back towards a room. He was so focused on the droplets that he bumped right into Pidge. “Pidge! Oh my god are you okay!?” 

Pidge was holding her hand in the air in front of them, smirking at Keith’s outburst, the blood-colored substance coating their arm and dripping to the floor. “Oh it’s not mine.”

“What? Who? Is someone hurt? What is that!?” Keith’s eyes were like saucers as he followed them to the sink.

“It’s just the blood of the last person to ask me too many questions.” Pidge raised an eyebrow at him, and he just stared, wondering how they could be so calm.

Hunk came out of the same room with a laugh, arm covered in a similar liquid, but this one was brown. “I guess you haven’t seen the glaze room yet.” He smiled warmly and washed his hands off with Pidge.

“Damn it Hunk I had him going.” Pidge pouted, their fun spoiled. 

“Well he has to learn sooner or later, the glazes are running low.”

“Glazes?” Keith asked, seeming relieved that the droplets weren’t the blood of Pidge’s enemies after all.

“You know, the stuff we put on our pottery for you to fire it a second time and make it all shiny and sparkly.” Pidge’s voice was dripping with snark.

Hunk gave her a disapproving frown then put his arm on Keith’s shoulders and guided him back to the room. “Well, I’ll show you how glaze works.” He smiled kindly and brought Keith into the room filled with rolling trash cans with lids and different names on them. There were several sticks, a few drills with mixing attachments, and a broken sink in the corner. There were a few pieces on the table, oversized ones belonging to Hunk that overshadowed Pidge’s tiny porcelain tea sets. 

“For someone so fierce you wouldn’t expect them to make something so delicate.” Keith murmured, causing Hunk and Pidge to crack up.

“They’re for the show and to sell. Tea sets go over better than what I really want to make out of porcelain.” Pidge went back to glazing, leaving Keith confused and looking to Hunk who simply shook his head. 

“Here, I still have a few pieces.” Hunk guided him to a trash can, removing the lid to reveal it was full of liquid glaze. “So you need to mix it up when it’s like this.” The glaze was separated, minerals in a thick soup on the bottom with water on the top. “I like to use the mixers because they work better, but you can hand mix them as well.” Hunk grabbed a clean mixing drill and put it in the glaze, turning it on and mixing for a minute, scraping the sides a bit. “Just like cooking.” He smiled, then sighed at Keith’s blank expression. Shaking his head he set the drill aside then put his hand in the glaze lifting it to let drips fall thickly into the bucket again. “You want the glaze like watery paint. Just like this. Then…” He picked up one of his smaller pieces and dunked it in, tilting so the inside would get filled, before pulling it up and shaking it into the bucket. “You dip and shake off the excess.” He smiled then set the vase down to dry. “Once is usually good, but you can layer the glazes too for different results. Oh! Reminds me, Pidge we need a tester board!” 

“Oh yeah, I’ve had some thoughts on that.” Pidge adjusted their glasses with their clean hand as they shook off a saucer. “I drew up a few designs, I think rounded testers would be best but ones we can take down and look at would be good.” 

“Hmm. Well we could make some cylinders of all the clay, it will be easier for Keith to fire those instead of tiles.” Hunk nodded.

Keith looked around at all the glazes, “You’re going to make stuff for all the glazes?”

“And their combinations too.” Pidge nodded.

“What about the show pieces? I don’t know how I’ll get them done in time.”

“It will be a ways off. And there isn’t a rush, we can get them done after the show if you can’t fit them. But the testers will be small.” Hunk assured him, easing his stress. 

“Oh, okay.” Keith nodded. 

Pidge went to wash their hands with Hunk again, Hunk closing all the lids. They were talking about measurements, and gestured for Keith to follow as they went to the locker room and pulled out a notebook filled with Pidge’s scribbles and- Keith put his hand out and stopped the pages from turning. “Is that mothman?” He pointed to a cartoon drawing of the cryptid, and Pidge beamed while hunk face-palmed.

“Yes! He’s real. I have a cousin who had a friend who got a glimpse of him once.” They said then glared at Hunk when he groaned, “It’s true Hunk!”

“It’s a friend of a cousin you hardly know, it’s hardly reliable information, and there’s no real evidence-”

“There’s plenty of evidence.” Keith interjected.

“Not you too!” Hunk frowned at him, then sighed and turned the pages forcefully, “Whatever, you two can talk conspiracies later-”

“It’s not a conspiracy!” They both told him at the same time.

“Let’s focus on the tester wall.” Hunk shook his head, tapping at some designs. 

“Oh, right. But this isn’t over, Hunk.” Pidge warned before crossing out all the designs with tile shaped testers.

They sat like that for a bit, getting Keith’s opinions on the tester walls and adding in his suggestions, even planning a few finalized designs to run by Allura. That’s how Allura and Lance found them, both of them chatting with Starbucks in their hands. Lance’s class had just finished and they were on their usual coffee break. “Well well well, what do we have here?” Lance all but purred, draping himself slightly over Keith, making him blush lightly.

“Oh, hey Lance, just finalizing some designs for the tester wall. Getting Keith’s input since he’ll be doing a lot of the firing. He has some good ideas.” Hunk smiled, as Pidge glared jealously at Lance’s coffee.

“Here, one sip, you little gremlin.” Lance said as he handed his coffee to Pidge, who took a long drink. “Hey I said sip!” 

“I have a different definition of sip.” Pidge handed back the coffee.

Lance muttered as he drank some, Keith watched him, getting slightly lost at the view of his profile. That’s when Allura stepped up to Keith’s other side. “Do you two finally have some designs to show me?   
We need to get all these things done for the students. Preferably while we still have room before the show.” That snapped Keith out of his staring and he stared intently at the notebook while Pidge and Hunk went over the designs. 

Which was why he wasn’t prepared for Lance to whisper in his ear, smelling of caramel coffee. “Hey, wanna get out of here and have another private lesson? You know practice makes perfect, though looking at you I’d say you’re damn close to perfect as is.” Keith could practically hear the wink in his voice.

“I uh- I gotta go check the kilns.” He said, a bit too loudly, untangling himself from Lance’s arm and all but bolting out of the room out to the kilns. _I don’t know if my heart can take all this,_ he thought, leaning against a wall and calming himself before moving to check the kilns, and bumping right into Shiro who seemed worried. 

“Are you alright?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m great, peachy, fine.” Keith tried to side step him, but Shiro kept getting in his way.

“Keith, I’ve known you for a long time, I can tell when you’re freaking out over something. What is it?”

Keith sighed, “Shiro, you’re like a brother to me, so please just let me figure it out. I’ll tell you when I’m ready to, okay?”

Shiro didn’t seem too happy about that but nevertheless he nodded, “Alright, but don’t let it eat you up, come to me if you need anything.”

“I will, I promise.” Keith moved towards the kilns before pausing and turning around “Oh, Hunk said the glazes are getting low, can you teach me how to fill them or what we do?”

“Of course.” Shiro smiled, gesturing for him to follow him inside back to the glaze room.


	5. Mixed Signals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long since an update everyone! I've been working two jobs, applying for university, and I literally just had surgery today!
> 
> Tank you everyone who left kudos, and comments, and all of you who are still reading! Not gonna lie, I almost stopped writing this until all of you inspired me. Especially when I saw a bookmark!? Like????? I'm so honored people like this and are reading it!?! 
> 
> Anywho, Kudos to all of you. You're amazing and give me hope and courage. 
> 
> I'll stop being sappy, now back to the fic. :)

The glaze room had to be closed off from anyone in the studio except for the kiln techs whilst glazes were being mixed, much to Keith’s relief. The last thing he wanted to deal with was more Lance while he was trying to concentrate. Shiro set a scale on one of the tables in the glaze room, putting a light container on it and zeroing it out, making sure it was set to grams. Then he pulled out two masks, handing one to Keith before putting the other on his face. Keith adjusted his mask before looking to Shiro, getting lost in thought when he noticed that the mask covered enough of his face to hide his scar.

“Keith? You ready?”, Shiro asked, eyes crinkling at the way Keith was zoning out so easily. 

“Hmm? Yeah. Ready.”

“Good.” Without any other warning Shiro hefted a large binder that slammed down on the table, he opened it and then went to check the buckets to see which were low. “This is our recipe book. It has stains, underglazes, raku glazes, and regular glazes. It also has recipes for terra sigillata and a description of all the types of kilns and firing processes that can be used to finish a piece.” He explained, finding a glaze that was low and then rolling the bucket closer to them. 

Keith glared at the large book “I didn’t realize there would be studying…” he grumbled.

“You don’t need to memorize any of it, it’s there for reference. Glaze mixing must be precise or everything can go crazy.” Shiro explained patiently. He turned to the section for glazes then found the recipe for the glaze that was almost empty. “Here we go, Winokur Yellow. One of Hunk’s favorite glazes.”

Keith looked at the complicated names of different minerals and their precise measurements. “Doesn’t seem too bad.” He looked around them at the storage bins under all the counter spaces.  
Shiro pulled out a bucket to mix their dry minerals in. “It just takes some getting used to.” He gestured to the first part of the recipe, then walked to the corresponding bin, pulling it out to show a large amount of powdery substance. “If you’re ever running low on any of these ingredients, make a list and let Allura or Coran know, they’ll order more.” 

“I still haven’t met Coran.” Keith reminded him.

“He should be back from vacation soon. You’ll like him, he’s very nice.” Shiro then started to carefully measure out the perfect amount of the mineral. Keith watched then measured out the rest of the components under Shiro’s watchful eye. “Good, now we take a whisk.” He pulled one out of a deep drawer full of whisks and what Keith thought looked an awful lot like toilet brushes, though he didn’t get a good look. “And we mix these together thoroughly.” Shiro started mixing the ingredients, and once they were all mixed evenly he showed Keith. Then he walked over to a large stack of buckets and pulled two out. He poured the dry ingredients into the bucket, then added some water. “Usually we just fill these buckets and it’s the proper amount.” The water suddenly started to look just like the glaze that was already mixed, a rusty red color. Shiro grabbed a clean mixer and began to mix it, a small whirlpool forming in the glaze.

Keith’s eyes widened slightly, then Shiro gestured to a sift behind him. He grabbed it and handed it to him. “We put this on the other bucket and slowly pour, turning this handle on top to even out the glaze and make sure everything breaks down. Then we can add it to the rest of the glaze.” Shiro set the sift on top and nodded towards the new glaze. Keith picked up the bucket and began slowly pouring it through the sift. 

“How am I supposed to sift and pour at the same time?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Well you can do it bit by bit. Pour some, sift it then pour more…” Shiro shrugged. “Or you can ask for help… Lance usually loves this part.” Shiro looked at Keith just in time to see him tense then pointedly look down to the glaze pouring through the mesh. “It does make it go quicker.” He had a small, knowing smile on his face, the one Keith hated.

“If all his talking and flirting don’t make you mess up the measurements, I guess.” Keith scoffed.

This made Shiro laugh. “He isn’t that bad, admit it.” 

“Uh… pretty sure he is.” He rolled his eyes. As if summoned there was a knock on the glass door of the glaze room, lo and behold, there was Lance, making betrayed faces at them and acting very offended. Shiro waved obliviously and he lifted his hands in the air as he walked away dramatically. “See? He’s a drama queen.”

Shiro sighed and looked up at Keith with a small, crooked smirk. “I think he’s just jealous.”

“Of turning a sift?” Keith frowned, glaring at the almost empty bucket. “Really, Shiro?”

“I doubt it’s just that.” Shiro said quietly, and refused to elaborate as they moved on to fill other glazes.

At one point whilst their backs were turned, Lance had picked the lock, donned his own mask and snuck in to stick his hands in the next mineral they needed. Making them jump, and Keith certainly didn't let out a small yelp, no way. Lance's brilliant blue eyes were crinkled at the corners as he laughed at them. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Keith growled, stalking towards him. Shiro grabbed Keith with a sigh and held him back.

"What? I'm usually the glaze mixing helper. I'm not about to let you steal my thunder." Lance scoffed "Besides the ingredients are so soft." he all but purred as he ran his hands, picking up some and letting it fall through his fingers.

"I'm not stealing your thunder- why would you even think that? This is part of my job!" Keith lunged in Shiro's grasp and Lance yelped this time, dropping the handful of soft minerals and jumping away quickly.

"I'm here to help you mullet!"

"Do I look like I need help?"

"If your hair is anything to go by, uh yeah you do!" Lance shot back.

Both of them were glaring daggers at each other now. "Why are you so obsessed with my hair?!"

"Pfft! I'm not obsessed, I'm pissed off by it! It makes us all look bad when our kiln tech is straight from the eighties." Lance's cheeks were flushed darker now, Keith assumed it was due to anger over how repulsive Lance apparently found him to look and he had no idea why that sent a pang of sadness shooting through him. So Keith covered it up the only way he knew how to deal with being hurt, he got aggressive.

"That's not what you were saying the other day when you were teaching me to throw-" 

"Never said the rest of you isn't hot enough to make up for your poor fashion sense-..." Lance blurted then turned darker, glancing around "Uh... I mean-"

"Wait are you calling me dumb?" Keith growled, too hotheaded to realize the compliment.

Lance silently thanked the universe for the save as Shiro rolled his eyes. "I'm calling you a lot of things, but without your number I won't be calling you tonight, hot stuff-"

"Lance, Keith." Shiro snapped out in his dad voice, making them stop to loo at him. "That's enough. Lance, know you like to help but I'm training Keith right now, so maybe next time you can help mix." he clamped his metal hand over Keith's mouth to stifle his protests. "for now let us get back to work. Its easier with just two people in here, you know that."

Lance considered this before letting out a long sigh and nodding, muttering under his breath as he walked out.

"Don't forget to wash your hands!" Shiro called as he opened the door.

"Yes, dad." Lance retorted sarcastically.

Shiro groaned and released Keith "Okay... back to work."

"Do you really expect me to work with him next time? Alone?" Keith asked in a disbelieving tone.

"I don't want to hear it Keith." There was the dad tone again. "Now, we need to finish this before my class starts, so get mixing."  
______________________________________

After all the glazes were topped off and the buckets and glaze room were cleaned did Shiro and Keith finally get to remove their masks. For safety reasons they kept the glaze room closed for another hour after they left just to be sure any residual minerals. Shiro glanced at the clock and groaned, managing to look a bit pale and a bit annoyed. Keith had never seen him like this, and just had to know. Eyebrow raised, and hand on his hip he stared at Shiro until he explained.

“I just remembered my class is going to start soon.” Shiro elaborated.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Keith’s head tilted, as he crossed his arms. "You were so adamant about finishing in time."

“It’s my advanced class tonight though…” 

“Again, good thing?”

“No… Slav is in that class.” Shiro looked actually annoyed by this person, and Keith was suddenly very determined to stay and meet him.

“Slav huh?” Keith smirked at the shudder that went through Shiro. “Sounds like a real character to make you, the master of all that is patience, lose his chill.”

“One, I am not the master of patience. Two, you don’t ever want to meet him.” Shiro frowned, making his way to the locker room, Keith trailing behind to clock out for the day.

“I dunno, maybe I’ll sit around to watch your class today, maybe pick up a few things about pottery.” Keith mused.

Shiro rolled his eyes then paused, smiling “You know, Lance is in my class too. He uses it for extra lab time.” 

This made Keith pause and consider, then he shook his head. The possibility of seeing Shiro get mad at someone for once was too great, it was definitely worth it. “I’m staying.”

“You’ll see then I guess. I won’t blame you if you leave early either.” Shiro ran a hand through his lock of white hair. 

“I think I can manage a full class time.”  
_________________________________________

Keith didn’t think he could actually make good on his word this time. 

As soon as he walked in with Shiro, he locked eyes with Lance, who lit up and waved him over. Keith looked around, but was thrown to the wolves by the person he thought he could trust. Shiro put his hand on his shoulder and pointed to Lance “Looks like you have a buddy to sit by already, Keith. Good job, you’ve made a friend.” Shiro tried to stifle a laugh and Keith elbowed him before walking over to sit on the wheel next to Lance. They were quiet while Shiro greeted the class, announced upcoming due dates and then offered a demonstration on his specialty, goblets, towards the end of class. 

As soon as he was done, a short man came scurrying up to him. Shiro was tensed immediately, and as he followed the man to his very intricate work that seemed very geometric and fragile his demeanor was getting more visibly irritated with every attempt to help him. The man seemed to be very worried about every single possibility. Oh yes, Keith decided it was definitely worth sitting in on this class.

“That’s Slav, Shiro’s favorite student.” Lance whispered sarcastically in Keith’s ear. Keith jumped slightly, though he’d never admit it, but Lance was far too close to comfort, practically draping himself over Keith’s shoulder. Lance backed away, not noticing his jumpiness, or if he did he didn’t mention it. Any traces of their earlier quarrel gone. “Anyway, I’m trying something cool. A double walled pot, with a bottle form’s neck.” Lance seemed so proud of this.

“A what?” Keith blinked at him, looking at the attempt in front of him that was mostly dry and surrounded by scraps of failed clay. 

Lance rolled his eyes, deflating just a little. “A double walled pot is like a pot within a pot, except they have the same top and bottom.” he explained “I forget what a noob you are.”

“Well it’s not my fault you have such a bad memory.” Keith shot back. “And this looks like one pot to me.”

“Wha- one?” Lance glared, picking up the pot and testing it, then picking up an exacto-blade. “You’re supposed to cut into the outer layer, to see the inner pot.” Lance’s tongue poked out in concentration, trying to carve a star. It turned out wobbly and uneven and he sighed, frowning at it. “Well you get the idea… I didn’t like this one anyway. I was going to cut star shapes into it.” Keith didn’t know what came over him, but he took the exacto-knife and the pot. “Wh- hey! I was trying to carve a star….”

Keith ignored him, carving out a perfect star, poking the center and pulling out the shape easily. he raised an eyebrow giving Lance a cocky smirk, “Heh, like that?” 

Lance was frozen, mouth open as he took in the star, then Keith. After a few beats he shook his head and gave him a flirty smile, “Sharp work samurai.” He winked. “You can carve the rest of that while I work on this one, consider it yours.” 

Keith didn’t know why such a lame compliment affected him the way it did, but he happily worked on carving while Lance made more work on the wheel. They actually got along better than either had expected, chattering and bantering here and there, but it was a lot less heated than usual. Keith found he might be able to tolerate him like this.

Keith almost forgot to watch for how badly Slav annoyed Shiro.... almost.


	6. Knocked Off Center

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit longer than the others!   
> I haven't been posting because I couldn't type for awhile. I recently had surgery on my arm, and it should be taken care of now. Just another month or two of healing. If I can't post regular updates I'll try to do longer chapters.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

Keith was so very glad he had stayed. Shiro’s face actually turned red out of anger on more than one occasion. Lance was becoming more tolerable too, the both of them enjoying the show that was Shiro’s torment. “You should stick around after for my class. Maybe I can give you another private lesson.” Lance all but purred in a seductive tone, giving Keith a sultry look and a wink.

Okay, maybe Keith wasn’t totally okay with Lance yet, but as he thought of how their last “private class” had gone he found himself nodding. “Alright, maybe I will.” 

Lance seemed caught off guard, like he hadn’t expected him to agree, but he recovered quickly with a big grin. “Cool.” Then Shiro started his demonstration on goblets and they were mesmerized for the rest of the class time.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

After Shiro’s class, he and Keith went to a nearby shopping center for some food. As they sat down and began to dig in Shiro smirked. “So, I heard you’ll be going to Lance’s class tonight too.”

Keith suddenly found his food very interesting, hair covering his red face. “I uh…. figured I should learn more about stuff while I’m here is all.”

“Uh-huh…. and him offering a private lesson after had nothing to do with sweetening the deal?”

“Wh-what? No… No way. Thats… Thats stupid. Why would I care?” Keith huffed, reaching to take a sip of his drink.

“Because I think you might have a bit of a… oh I dunno, a crush on him?” Shiro smiled when Keith nearly spat out his drink. “Heh, admit it.”

Keith glared “... fine, yeah, he’s cute. I’d date him if I could stand him. He’s just a big flirt though, who knows if he’s even into men for real?”

“Pretty sure he is, but you could always give it a chance and find out. Maybe this private lesson with him might lead to something more. Patience yields focus.”

“Thanks for the lecture, dad.” Keith rolled his eyes.

“Just promise to use protection.” 

“What?”

“You know, wear your apron.” Shiro smiled. “And always make sure it’s slick enough to slide easy.”

“Oh my god, are you really doing this right now?” Keith groaned, wondering how Shiro could make innuendos about pottery throwing on the wheel.

“And always to remember to wrap it up.” Shiro snickered.

“Ugh you win, I’m dead.” Keith leaned back in his chair to act like he was a corpse.

“Hi dead-”

“Shiro, don’t.” Keith sat up and glared.

“I’m Shiro.” he laughed as Keith got up to throw away his trash and leave.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Keith returned just in time to get ready for Lance’s class, and he was feeling actually a bit excited about it as he walked out, tying his apron on. 

He looked around to find Lance, and his small smile immediately dropped when he saw Lance chatting and flirting heavily with a pretty blonde wearing pigtails. He suddenly wanted to just forget the class and sneak away.

“Keith, buddy! Come on over and meet Nyma!” Lance had spotted him, great, no going back now.

Taking a breath and trying to wipe the “I really don’t want to be here” expression off his face Keith turned and walked over “Uh, hi.” he held out his hand to greet Nyma.

“Hello.” The girl giggled, smiling at him coyly and batting her lashes.

“Nyma used to work in the shop with me at the studio I used to work at. She ended up in my class here of all places! Imagine that! She used to make some amazing stuff on the pottery wheel.” Lance grinned, wrapping an arm around Nyma’s waist and pulling her to his hip. 

“Oh uh… great.” Keith gave a small fake smile even if he thought it was the opposite of great.

“Oh Lance, please don’t make a fuss. It’s been so long since I’ve thrown anything.” Nyma blushed. “I might even need some extra lessons to get back up to speed.” She batted her eyes at Lance who got a goofy smile on his face, his cheeks a few shades darker. 

He turned towards and brushed a hair from her face with a smirk. “Well I could always give you some private sessions with me.” He was flirting heavily. “Maybe even later today we could…” Keith had had enough, he turned away without a word and slunk over to where Hunk and Pidge were on the pottery wheels, working on pieces for the show.

“Hey, Keith.” Hunk greeted with a friendly grin. Pidge glanced up and nodded their greeting.

“Hey, uh… I promised Lance I’d stay for his class, but he seems... “ Keith glanced back to where Lance was falling head over heels about Nyma batting her eyes at him. “...preoccupied now.”

“Hmm.” Hunk made a face that showed he didn’t approve then shook his head and the smile was back, he patted a wheel between him and Pidge. “Well we sit in on this class, so we can help you out!” 

Keith gave him a grateful smile and sat down. Pidge stopped working on their delicate teapot and smirked, fixing their glasses with the back of their hand. “Forget about Lance, he’s an idiot.” 

“Hey! I resent that!” Lance squawked, hands on his hips. Nyma laughed behind her hand. Lance shook his head and then gestured to Nyma like he was a magician and she was his lovely assistant. “This lovely creature here is Nyma, a wonderful artist, and an old coworker of mine.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Nyma did a fake curtsy with her apron.

Pidge rolled their eyes and ignored her, going back to their wheel. Keith did the same, taking some clay that Hunk was holding out for him, breaking it up and forming it into balls. Hunk put on a tight smile and waved at Nyma. “Welcome to Castle Ceramics.” It was then and there that Keith decided Hunk was a saint that needed to be protected at all costs.

“Thank you.” Nyma smiled back, but it wasn’t quite genuine.

“Well I better start class.” Lance smirked at Keith. “Hey, man.” Keith looked up and raised an eyebrow “Nice balls.” Lance winked then walked off with Nyma to the front of the room where the other students were sitting at tables.

“Christ….” Keith muttered, rolling his eyes.

Pidge sighed as well. “That’s one of his favorite jokes, get used to hearing it a lot.”

“I’m just glad he has a new target for it.” Hunk laughed, nudging Keith gently with his elbow. “Sorry buddy.”

Keith felt a small smile creep back onto his lips, maybe this class wouldn’t be as unbearable as he had thought it was going to be. “It’s fine. At least you guys can help me with this stuff, it’s almost worth the terrible puns…. almost.” 

Pidge laughed, punching his arm playfully and leaving porcelain slip on him. “You’ll fit in fine here.”

Lance clapped his hands together excitedly and proclaimed loudly. “So who wants to get on the kiln!?” He blinked then paled a bit. “I mean the wheel!”

“I want to get in the kiln.” Pidge deadpanned. “I need the sweet release of death.” 

Keith started laughing and Hunk seemed only mildly concerned.

Lance sighed at their laughter and seemed to lose the wind in his sails a bit, but then brightened when Nyma whispered something in his ear. Keith decided to ignore him for the rest of the class.

That’s how the class went. Lance blatantly flirting with Nyma and showing off for her. He was ignoring Keith who was picking up the basics fairly quickly with Hunk and Pidge’s guidance. Before he knew it he had a few bowls that looked actually pretty good. Not as delicate as Pidge’s, and no where near as massive as Hunks, but somewhere in the middle. The bowls were fairly light and were even. “You’re a natural at this, Keith. Those are pretty impressive.” Pidge complimented.

Hunk nodded. “Yeah, and Pidge never compliments people, like ever.”

Keith smiled at them. “Well I had great teachers.” 

Lance had been walking by, and of course heard that. “Well you’re welcome young padawan-”

“No thanks to you, Lance.” Keith turned and glared at him.

“What!?”

“You heard me.” Keith deadpanned, going back to remove his newest bowl from the wheel and place it on a board with the others to dry. 

“He’s kinda right, Lance. You’ve been too busy to even look over here so Pidge and I have been helping him.” Hunk said gently.

Pidge scoffed. “Yeah right. Lance, what Hunk means to say is you’ve been thinking with your-”

“Pidge, language.” Hunk gasped.

Pidge rolled their eyes. “with your… other brain this whole class.” 

“Have not-” Lance looked over to the end of the row of wheels. “Oh wow Nyma, that’s so pretty! Just like something else in this room.” He winked and shot finger guns at her before making his way over to her. She was making bowls like Keith had done, except hers were a bit dantier. 

“Ugh, really?” Keith muttered under his breath, refusing to let it get to him. 

Hunk patted his shoulder then pulled away when clay got all over his shirt. “Shoot, sorry.”

Keith shrugged. “It’s just dirt, no big deal.” He then started to clean up his wheel, missing the conspiratorial looks Pidge and Hunk shared. They didn’t push anything though, and helped him wrap and store his bowls, promising to help him trim them when they were dry enough. 

“They have to be about leather hard, so that the clay comes off in ribbons.” Hunk explained as they washed the clay off them in the employee room. “That makes it way easier to trim. It’s really fun, but that makes it hard to not go through the bottom of the bowl.”

Pidge walked in, looking annoyed, followed by Lance who was going on about something Keith didn’t care enough to listen to.

“I thought you were going to give your girlfriend a private lesson.” Keith spat venomously when Lance pushed him out of the way to wash in the sink too.

Lance blinked at him and took a step back. “What’s up with you all of a sudden?” He frowned, raising an eyebrow then shrugged. “I’m waiting for the rest of the class to clear out so we can have some alone time.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Figured I’d freshen up.”

Keith huffed and pulled his apron off, tugging his hair loose. He walked over to his locker, threw the apron in and grabbed his things. “Got to pull out all the stops huh?” He slammed his locker shut then walked out of the room to the back to check on the kiln.

“Jeez, what’s up his butt?” Lance asked Hunk when Keith was gone. “Like, jealous much?”

“Lance you’re an idiot.” Pidge said, putting their apron away nicely.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Keith made sure the temperature on Kaltenecker was cooling down, when he was satisfied that it was he turned to leave, but was stopped by a tiny meow. Looking down he saw the kittens, Red in front of them and sitting right at Keith’s feet. He sighed and picked Red up, cuddling the kitten to his chest. “Hey guys, are you looking for a warm place to sleep?” 

The cats let out a chorus of mewls and circled his feet, rubbing against him until he’d pet them. “Okay, okay, I guess I can pet you for a bit.” He sat down to play with the kittens, feeling a bit better.

It was about a half an hour later that their mom, Luna, appeared to collect them. Keith stood and brushed his pants free of dirt and fur, saying goodbye to the kittens before going into the employee room to wash his hands. He then went out, passing through the studio. 

He stopped and felt his heart drop when he saw Lance’s body curled around Nyma’s as they worked on the wheel together, exactly like Lance had done to him the other day. Lance’s face was calm, yet blissful, and it made Keith’s heart squeeze in a way it had never done before. Then he shut down that train of thought, getting more upset as he skulked out of the studio. Lance and Nyma didn’t look up once. He let his anger grow as he walked to his car, giving a half hearted wave to Pidge who was working the front store now. He glanced back at the studio door as he got to his car, his heart did another twinge. Rubbing his chest Keith made a mental note to go to the doctor and see if anything was wrong with him.


	7. High Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! There's a lot in this chapter. Couple things though... 
> 
> *Blood warning and stronger language is used in this chapter. It's mostly towards the end, so if that sort of stuff bothers you be warned.*
> 
> I think this chapter is longer? I tried to make it longer. Lotta life is happening right now, so I apologize for the sporadic updates. Thank you so much for reading!

The chest pains continued for a few more days. It seemed to be in the workspace area, usually after classes, and certainly had nothing to do with seeing Lance and Nyma having their private lessons. Keith figured it might be some clay dust and surely some of the others had gone through a similar reaction. 

That’s the story he chose to go with as he stared blankly into a dark coffee filled mug in his living room at an ungodly hour. There was a meeting today, before opening, and it was mandatory. He glanced at the clock and groaned, unable to finish his coffee because he was late. Grabbing his keys and jacket he rushed out the door, barely remembering to lock up before rushing to work.

By the time he had arrived he was in a panic over his job, a string of curses blending together in his mind. He had hit a bit of traffic so his commute had taken even longer than usual. He was an equal mix of worried and relieved when he saw Shiro waiting outside for him.

“You’re late.” was all he said.

Keith’s head dropped and he muttered something that sounded vaguely like an excuse.

Luckily, Shiro knew better than to try and get an answer he could actually understand. They walked in together. “Good thing you aren’t the only one who is late.” 

Keith looked up with a raised eyebrow. “You’re late too?” He didn’t believe it.

“Ha! No, but Lance and Allura both have a tendency to stop for Starbucks no matter what. They got here a little while ago, so the meeting won’t start for awhile longer.” Shiro explained, putting a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. “So really you’re on time.”

“Good.” Keith smiled, feeling better already. He reached for the handle of the employee rooms, which was cracked open slightly. Keith barely registered this as weird before opening the door and stepping through with Shiro.

There was a few loud yells and the next thing he knew, he was soaking wet with a bucket on his head. 

Keith took the bucket off and rubbed his head, glancing back he saw Shiro had been caught in the prank as well. He looked to the room, glaring daggers. Predictably, Lance was on the floor laughing so hard he was barely making noise. Pidge and Allura were snickering, but trying hide it. Hunk looked almost ashamed to be associated with them.

Keith locked his eyes on Lance and took aim, as he was about to launch the bucket at him Shiro, ever the peace keeper, caught his arm and stole the bucket away. “Very funny, Lance.” He said in his disappointed dad voice.

“Aw come on! That was…. That was perfect!” He gasped in between laughter. “Your face- and…. and the bucket!... It landed on his… his head! Like a cartoon!” 

Keith took a step forward, hands already curled into fists. Shiro stopped him from going any further, but Keith did take a bit of pride in the fact that Lance had flinched a bit. “Still, you could have hurt someone.”

“Sorry, dad.” Lance mocked, sitting up. Shiro then decided the wet shirt was not going to fly and took it off. Lance stood and nudged Allura with his elbow, wiggling his eyebrows as he winked at her until she smacked him away. 

Shiro missed it completely, so Keith rolled his eyes at the oblivious man and took his shirt off too. He held out his hand for Shiro’s, “I’ll put these on Kaltenecker to dry, it should be warm enough.” He offered, though mostly it was to get out of the situation and lose the temptation of punching something.

“Thanks Keith.” Shiro said, handing the shirt over before turning to the others, noticing that Lance was staring rather openly at Keith. Shiro cleared his throat to get his attention, “Sorry Allura, but that water was cold.”

“It’s fine.” Allura said, and if it was too quick, no one said anything, “Let’s get set-up for the meeting.”

Outside, Keith was figuring out it was definitely not his day. As he was setting the shirts up on Kaltenecker, he somehow managed to get burned on his arm, and as he went to pull away he got his hand burned a little too. He cursed loudly and then ran inside, everyone staring at him as he cursed a little under his breath and ran the burns under some water. 

His prediction of a bad day was solidified when Lance was the first one over, “Hey man, you okay?” His voice was filled with concern as he carefully placed his hand on Keith’s arm and tried to see what was wrong.

This filled Keith with a rage that came from seemingly nowhere, but he knew that he couldn’t just pick a fight. “I’m fine,” He all but snarled, knocking Lance’s hand away and stepping back as he pushed lightly at him to get some space. “I just got burned a little. I’m fine.”

“O-okay.” Lance backed off, and the glint of hurt in his eyes made Keith both upset and happy. 

Keith walked over to the meeting table and took the seat furthest from Lance, putting himself right next to Hunk and an empty chair. “Well, now that we are all here, it’s time to discuss the upcoming ceramics competition.” Allura said, her regal voice and spot at the head of the table easily getting everyone to give her their undivided attention.

“As you know, this competition happens every year between state-wide ceramics studios, and the first place studio gets a cash prize.” Allura explained, “We get judged on the quality of our ceramics and our variety of skill sets.” She looked to Keith, “For you, Keith, this competition means that all of our competition pieces have priority when you load the kilns, and there will be a special place in the studio for you to put finished pieces.” 

“I’ll show him everything he needs to know about it later.” Shiro volunteered, Keith and Allura nodded.

“Now, all of you are encouraged to reach out to the most talented students in your classes to assist us. Students such as Slav for example.” Keith saw Shiro suppress a shudder. “You’re welcome to come in early and stay after hours for studio time in order to complete your projects. I believe experimenting with colors and glazes is going to be one of the main categories this year, so I encourage you to do just that.” Allura smiled, “I am confident that we will be very successful this year.”

“Yeah, we’re totally going to kick Galra Studio’s butts!” Lance proclaimed enthusiastically, pumping his fists and almost knocking over his obnoxiously colorful starbucks drink order. 

Allura smiled as everyone but Keith cheered. “Yes, this year for certain. We will fight with all we’ve got to take the title from the Galra.” Her and everyone else cast Lance smiles that hinted there was a story there, but Keith decided he didn’t care. “Now, I’d also like to announce that Coran will be back within the week. He called yesterday and told me he found a few new pottery techniques on his travels! We will have a special employee class…” The meeting went on to more boring topics after that, very few of them relating to Keith, so he found himself daydreaming quite a bit until it was over.

At the end of the meeting Keith seemed to be enough of a zombie to warrant concern from Pidge of all people. They offered him dibs on the nap couch and even offered the nap blanket. Keith gladly took the offer.

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Keith woke to a quiet staff room, everyone out and doing their own thing around the studio. He sat up on the nap couch and stretched, joints popping a little. He checked his phone and it was about time for his shift to start so he stood and went to his locker, pulling out his apron before going to clock in. With one more yawn he decided he was feeling better than he had this morning, even if he still had to get his shirt from this morning’s incident. 

He stepped out to the kilns and his mood immediately plummeted when he heard the unmistakable giggle of Nyma flirting with Lance. Trying to ignore them to grab his shirt he kept his head down, but just his luck they were right in front of the kiln making out. Keith rolled his eyes, trying to make himself believe he wasn’t bothered more than he should be, and there was that chest pain again. He leveled a glare at the pair who were shamelessly tangled up together then cleared his throat pointedly. The pair jumped apart, Nyma looking smug while Lance was blushing brightly and looking almost apologetic? No, Keith decided it was embarrassment. “Mind if I actually do my job around here?” 

Lance huffed at that, “I’m on my break, mullet.” He crossed his arms but he and Nyma moved anyway. “At least I’m not showing off my six pack at work.” He turned and put his arm around Nyma, leading her out to the back alley. “C’mon Nyma.”

Keith blinked at him then shook his head, taking his now dry shirt and tugging it on, then putting on his apron. He checked the kilns, figured they could cool a bit longer, then went to check on his other responsibilities around the studio. The strange feeling of dread and an ache in his chest seeming to follow him around.

Unfortunately this day was meant to be the day from hell for Keith. He was bearing witness to way more PDA from Lance than was probably appropriate for the workplace, and on top of that Lance decided it was a good day for pranks. 

No one was safe.

The next major incident of the day was while Keith was putting away finished pieces from the kiln, after setting something down there was a loud shriek that made him jump and a startled, “Don’t move!” from Lance. Confused, he froze and when nothing happened he turned to look at Lance slowly. Only to be hit in the face with one of those sticky hands from arcades. Lance laughed at the face he made then ran away fast when Keith lunged at him. They ended up running a few laps around the studio before Shiro stopped them, grabbing Keith by the back of his shirt before he could get his hands on Lance. 

Lance decided the reactions to the sticky hand were the best thing ever, so whenever Nyma wasn’t around occupying him he was finding new ways to slap people with the gooey toy. The most intricate was when he snuck up on Shiro with a hose, making him have to dry his shirt and apron again. Then when everyone came to see why they were making a commotion Lance slapped the sticky hand on Shiro’s pecs and winked. Keith rolled his eyes and walked away, the others found some joke that Lance made hilarious, but Keith didn’t care to hear what it was. 

Lance went on like this, pranking everyone several times in various ways. Keith kept walking in on him flirting with Nyma who was apparently just hanging around Lance and having him show her around constantly. 

Finally it was the end of the day, and Keith couldn’t wait to go home. He was setting the final kiln alight, when the door banged open and startled him. His hand brushed over a burner as soon as it caught fire. Letting out a pained noise he pulled back his hand quickly and shook it, falling back on his butt as he put his hand to his mouth and turned to glare at the source of the noise. Of course it had to be the cause of this horrible day, Lance. 

“Hey man… you alright?” Lance asked, looking worried about Keith. 

Keith noticed Lance had his hands behind his back and raised an eyebrow at him, “Fine, just fine. Why don’t you go get to your private lessons or whatever?” He spat with a bit more venom in his words than was warranted.

Lance held up a hand, “Woah, buddy, where did that come from?” He gasped then grinned, “Do you miss our little lessons?” He asked in a flirty voice.

This made Keith more angry, “Why would I? Pidge and Hunk are better teachers anyway.” He ignored the hand Lance was starting to hold out for him and got up himself. He walked over to the outside sink and ran cold water over his hand before drying it off and staring at it. It wasn’t that bad.

“Can I at least see if it’s okay?” Lance persisted, setting a box down next to the sink and taking Keith’s hand before he could decline. “It is kind of my fault it happened,” He admitted, inspecting his hand.

“I’m fine, Lance.”

“Well, I know a little secret my mama taught me to make burns heal a little quicker.” He told Keith, who was suddenly interested.

“Aloe?”

“Better.” Lance gave him a smile then leaned down slightly and kissed Keith’s hand, “the healing power of a kiss.” 

Keith pulled his hand away, turning red, “What the hell, Lance? You can't just do that to people!”

Lance seemed to flinch a bit. “What’s your deal? Didn’t your mom ever kiss the pain away?” He defended himself.

“That’s not any kind of medicine.” Keith huffed, getting mad again.

This made Lance laugh, “Come on, man, every mom does that at least once when you’re a kid. It’s like childhood 101!”

Keith frowned and looked away, crossing his arms, “Well not everyone has parents or a home to have a childhood in.”

Lance’s jaw dropped, and it took a couple seconds for him to process that. “Wha-... you were an-...”

“An orphan, yeah.” Keith glared at him, challenging him to say something about it.

“Shit… I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” Lance glanced at the box then Keith then picked it up and turned to leave, “I uh… can we forget I said anything?”

Keith shook his head, “It shouldn’t change anything between us. But if you insist on treating me different, fine.” He was upset Lance was the type of guy to try and treat him more fragile once he learned that he had no family growing up.

“Wh-no!” Lance yelped, turning around and following Keith back towards the kiln, watching him adjust the flames. “I just meant I didn’t mean to bring it up.” Lance sighed, fiddling with the box again then smiling at Keith softly. “The last thing I want to do is make you upset, Keith. You’re a really cool guy, and I like it when we hang out and don’t fight…”

The tone in Lance’s voice did something to Keith’s emotions and gave him enough of a glimmer of hope to turn around and look. “It’s fine Lance, really.” He stood up and checked the temperature gauge. 

“Well I uh… I brought this to make up for earlier. You know, the water bucket and stuff.” Lance was biting back a smile, and Keith thought it must be because he’s worried that he won’t accept the apology. “I know we have our rough patches, and I can be a little abrasive. I just wanted to show you I’m not that bad of a guy. I really care about you, Keith.” Lance held out the box towards him a little further.

With a sigh Keith held out his hand and took the box. The face Lance was making now was so full of glee that it made Keith melt a little inside, running the last sentence through his head over again. How could he not forgive him after how earnest he sounded? Keith opened the box…

...and his face was promptly met with a large amount of glitter and confetti. 

Lance started cackling, hollering, “Oh my god! I can’t believe that worked! Hahaha! Holy…. Keith! Your Face!” 

He kept going on like that, as Keith felt himself snap. Lance was cut off by Keith decking him so hard the taller boy fell to the ground with a yelp. Keith straddled him, pulling his shirt so Lance was looking up at him with wide eyes and a bloody nose. “You asshole!” He snarled, “I trusted you! You can’t just play with people’s emotions like that!” His other fist clenched and raised out of habit.

Lance panicked and hit Keith in the gut then on the side of the head, before rolling them over and trying to grab his wrists. Keith was seeing red at this point, and naturally his instincts took over. Soon they were full on fighting. Fists and legs swinging at each other as they let their bodies take over.

It was barely a minute later when Keith came to his senses while being held back by Hunk’s arms. Hunk was trying to calm him down, he heard Lance yelling at Shiro to let him go, and slowly he realized he just got in a fist fight at work. Keith calmed himself a bit at the realization, and then noticed he was being held in the air by Hunk so he couldn’t get traction to run forwards. “There we go…” Hunk sighed, “Are you going to be okay if I set you down?”

“Y-yeah…” Keith’s voice was shaking.

“No more fighting?” Hunk said in a voice full of disapproval.

“No more fighting…” Keith relented. Hunk walked back a few steps before releasing Keith carefully. 

Once he was happy Keith wasn’t going to run off Hunk sighed and turned him around gently, “What happened? Are you alright? You’re crying.”

Keith’s eyes widened and he felt his face, his hand came away wet with watered down blood which must have been a mixture of some blood and tears. “I’m fine.” 

“Lance said you attacked him.” Hunk said cautiously. “What happened?”

“He was being an asshole.” Keith muttered, looking at his shoes, a darkness coming into his eyes. 

Hunk tried to press for more details, but Keith refused to give any. “Well, go get cleaned up… I’m going to check on Lance.” He backed away then turned to find his friend. Keith cursed under his breath and went to the staff washroom to clean up. 

He looked in the mirror, grimacing. Lance had given him what seemed to be the start of a black eye and a split lip. The blood and glitter was smeared on his face, probably from Lance trying to shove him away. Tear tracks carved crisp lines through it. He groaned and bent to wash his face off before checking the rest of himself. As the adrenaline died down it became easier. His knee was scraped, the burn from earlier was still painful, and his forearm and back hurt. He figured his back was from getting thrown on the ground when Lance first fought back. He looked to where his forearm was throbbing and blinked. He stared at the bite mark, trying not to laugh at the ridiculous notion that Lance had actually bit him while they were fighting, like they were little kids. He sighed then looked at his reflection, dread filling him when he realized he might get fired over this stupidity.

As he realized there was glitter from the prank clinging stubbornly to his hair and skin there was a knock on the door. Keith steeled himself before opening it to face the music. Shiro and Allura were there, but they didn’t seem mad. They looked more disappointed and concerned, which somehow made Keith feel worse. “Keith,” Allura started, “Lance told us what happened.” She gestured for him to follow them to her office. The short walk felt like a funeral march. He sat down where Allura told him to and waited, head bowed. “Are you alright?” She asked, tilting her head as she sat down in her chair. 

“I- I’m fine… I’m sorry for… for fighting.” Keith admitted, “I understand if you want me gone-”

“You’re not in trouble, Keith,” Allura said gently. 

Keith looked up at her so fast he got some spots in his vision, “What?”

“Lance admitted he was egging you on.” Shiro explained, resting a hand on his shoulder. “He told us he knew you were upset about something, but you didn’t want him to treat you differently over whatever it was, so he went on with his prank, even though he knew it was hurtful.”

“He said it was insensitive too, which is something he doesn’t ever admit to,” Allura sighed, “Which means it really must have been bad. So you’re not fired, Keith.”

“You are in a bit of trouble though.” Shiro chimed in with his dad voice, “I want you to apologize to Lance, we need to work as a team if the competition coming up is going to go well.”

“I- I know…” Keith looked down at his hands, he imagined what to say, then he imagined Lance and his heart twinged when he recalled the prank. “Can I apologize when I cool down?” He asked, fiddling with a loose string on his apron.

Allura and Shiro shared a look, both nodding before Allura smiled softly at Keith, “Take your time, Keith. Just make sure this doesn’t affect your work.”

“I won’t.” Keith promised, looking up at them, “Should I head home now?”

“I think that’s for the best.” Shiro said and Allura agreed. 

Keith nodded and stood, walking out to put his things away and clock out. As soon as he shut his locker he was suddenly picked up and crushed in a bear hug. Looking over he couldn’t help but smile as Hunk held him. “Keith! You’re not dead or fired!” 

Keith tapped him, “I might asphyxiate if you don’t put me down…” He joked, Hunk had a way of making everyone around him a little happier.

Hunk set him down and Pidge walked forwards, adjusting their glasses, “I’m actually impressed how long you went without punching him.”

“Pidge,” Hunk said in a disapproving tone.

“What? It’s true.” Pidge held their hands up and smiled. 

Keith smirked and shook his head, turning to the door, “Well, I do sort of regret it.”

“I’m sure you do.” Pidge smirked, sharing a look with Hunk behind Keith’s back as they followed him out to the empty studio.

Keith paused just passed the doorway. Lance was with Nyma again, cleaned up and curled against her body as they showed each other something on the wheel in one of their unnecessary private lessons. Lance’s chin was resting on Nyma’s shoulder. She glanced up, eyes glinting as she saw Keith, before she turned her head and kissed Lance on the cheek. Lance blushed and turned so they could kiss more intimately. Keith’s fists clenched, he felt his keys dig into his palm and he let out a breath before turning away and making his way to the front. 

Pidge and Hunk sighed, shaking their heads in exasperation. Hunk followed Keith right away while Pidge stayed behind to walk over and give Lance and Nyma a hard time. Hunk caught up to Keith in the store area, which was shut down for the night. “Hey, can I tell you something?”

Keith raised an eyebrow, looking at Hunk curiously. “Um, yeah, sure.”

Hunk smiled, putting a hand around Keith’s shoulders, “I think you’re better for him than Nyma. I don’t trust her.”

Keith sputtered, “What? Why would you- I’m not…” Keith shook his head then something in him clicked and he stopped denying it, “I-... It doesn’t matter anyway. He probably hates my guts.”

“He doesn’t hate you, Keith.” Hunk assured, unlocking the front door and walking Keith out. “Heck, Pidge beat him up worse than you on a number of occasions, and there’s no hard feelings.”

That made Keith laugh, “I’m sure they did, but this is a bit different.” His smile died as he stared at his keys. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay…” Hunk said, patting him on the shoulder, “But just know that it’s not as hopeless as you think.” With that he walked away.

Keith drove home in silence, and later let everyone’s words wash over him as he stood in the shower watching leftover glitter and blood circle down the drain.


	8. The Cage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to everyone who's reading this, and leaving kudos, and comments! You're the best!
> 
> This chapter is quite a doozie in this story, so I hope I did it justice.

The next morning Keith felt better emotionally, physically however he was sore. The pain had woken him up a little earlier than usual so he took his time eating breakfast. Taking some pain-killers before he left for work he mentally steeled himself for apologizing to Lance.

When he got to work he was both relieved and anxious to find that Lance wasn’t there yet. He figured it was probably something silly like traffic and shook it off, getting his apron on. Looking down he saw that he would need to take it home to wash it soon, luckily it was a shade of red that somewhat hid the blood stains. Walking outside to check on the kilns he was stopped by a tan hand holding a purple-ish drink in his face. “Wh-?” He took a step back and blinked at Lance who apparently had been late due to being at Starbucks. “Lance, why are you standing in a doorway holding a drink?” Keith asked, confused.

Lance was looking at his shoes, holding the drink out to Keith and a matching one in his other hand held close to his chest. Lance looked up, sheepishly smiling, “It’s an apology Captain Crunch Frappuccino. I was a complete jerk yesterday, and I’m really sorry. You told me something about yourself that you trusted me with, and I wanted to prove I wouldn’t treat you differently. The way I went about it was very wrong though, and I’m really really sorry Keith.”

Keith smiled, shaking his head as he laughed, “It’s fine Lance. I was actually going to apologize to you today too. So uh… sorry for punching you. It wasn’t very… nice of me.” Lance shook the drink at him and Keith took it, eyeing the purple drink with what looked like chocolate chips in it.

“I kind of deserved it. Sorry for punching you back.” Lance grinned, and Keith felt his heart flutter a little.

“So um… what is this? Is it safe to drink?” Keith asked after a few seconds of silence.

Lance’s eyes widened, “It’s a Captain Crunch Frappuccino! The drink of the Starbucks gods!”

“You walk into a coffee shop and actually order it like that?” Keith smirked.

“Well sometimes a new person is working so you have to tell them what’s in it.” Lance rolled his eyes “Have you never been to Starbucks or something?”

“I usually just have plain coffee if it’s around.” Keith shrugged, taking a sip. “Woah it does taste like the cereal. What is it?”

“A strawberries and cream with a pump of raspberry syrup, and chocolate chips.” Lance smiled, taking a sip of his own, “It’s one of my favorites.”

“Huh, well um… thank you. It’s really good.” Keith smiled back at Lance and they were quiet for a moment, just staring. Until they were interrupted by a small chorus of meowing.

Turning to look they saw the kittens and their mother walking over happily. “Aww, it’s the babies! C’mere Blue!” Lance cooed, setting his drink on a table and going to scoop his favorite kitten up. He nuzzled the kitten to his face and it mewled happily, cuddling up with him as he pet it. Red pawed at Keith’s pants and he followed Lance’s lead, setting his drink down and picking the kitten up. Red wasn’t a cuddler and simply climbed up to perch on Keith’s shoulder, pressing his face against his cheek but not doing much else. Luna walked and pressed herself around Keith’s ankles, letting him crouch down carefully to pet her.

“Did they eat today?” Keith found himself asking Lance who was now on the ground with the other kittens as well as Blue. 

“I’m sure they had a feast. It was Hunk’s day to feed them and he always brings some treats he cooked for them.” Lance said, playing with the kittens, watching as they batted at his shoelaces and untying them.

“Hunk’s a great guy.” Keith nodded, nuzzling Red who was pressing against his face again.

“Um I think you mean Hunk is a literal angel sent to grace us with his presence here on Earth.” Lance grinned, rolling his eyes and looking over at Keith. His eyes may have lingered a bit longer than necessary, and a bit of color grew on his cheeks, but Keith was blissfully unaware.

Keith laughed, “As much as I enjoy our debates, I’m going to have to agree with you on that one.” He glanced up and caught Lance turning his head away quickly. 

“Red sure does like you, huh?” Lance glanced up again, watching Blue tug lightly at his pants, trying to pull him towards Keith’s direction. “Blue, you already ate.” 

“He’s pretty lovable, I don’t know why you said he isn’t.” Keith set Red on the ground and he rubbed up against his knees as Luna crawled into his lap, purring. “Hey, Luna.” Keith scratched the mommy cat under her chin.

“Red won’t let anyone else pick him up or pet him.” Lance huffed, the two watched as Red hid slightly behind Keith’s foot, getting ready to pounce. “See he’s probably planning to attack me.”

“He’s probably just going to play with your shoes like the others. He’s a kitten Lance, just because he’s a bit unsure about affection doesn’t mean he doesn’t like you.” Keith sighed, then the boys laughed as Red pounced and startled Blue, the two running around them in a game of chase. 

“I guess it’s kind of like relationships with people. You never really know unless they tell you.” Lance shrugged. 

Keith shook his head, scooting Luna off his lap and standing. “You can only hope for the best I suppose. C’mon, we better get to work.” Keith brushed the fur off his apron and walked over to offer Lance his hand.

Lance looked at the hand, then up at Keith, smiling softly. “Thanks.” He took his hand and then let go to dust the fur and dirt off of himself as well. “I’ll uh, see you later. Are you staying after closing? We’re all going to work on our projects after.”

“I’ll think about it.” Keith shrugged, watching as Lance grabbed his drink and went inside.

“Okay, well hasta la later, Keith.” Lance waved, glancing back before disappearing inside the studio. Keith turned to the kilns, Red meowed at him before running off after the other kittens Luna was leading out to the back alley. Keith grinned, today was going to be a good day.

 

~~~

 

“Finally.” Pidge declared as they locked the front doors and turned off the open sign. The last customers had just left for the day, and now it was time for them to work on their projects for the competition. 

Keith smiled as Hunk put an arm around him and pulled him into a half hug, “Now we get to actually have some fun!” Hunk let go of Keith as they turned to go to the cage to grab some clay.  
Keith walked in first and then tensed as he heard it clang shut behind him. “Hey, ” he laughed, trying to open the door and finding it locked. “What?”

“It locks from the outside, remember?” Pidge smirked, pushing up their glasses. “You’re stuck in there now.”

“Ha ha, let me out.” Keith deadpanned, having a stare-off with Pidge until they laughed and let him out.

“Fine, I guess we need you for the kilns.” They rolled their eyes, Hunk just shook his head and grabbed some bags of clay to take with them to the wheels, easily holding three 25 pound bags. Keith and Pidge grabbed one bag each, Pidge struggling a little with theirs. They let the cage close and lock behind them as they made their way to the wheels, discussing ordering pizza.

They placed their bags next to their respective wheels and walked to their lockers to get their tools. When they returned they saw Lance and Nyma sitting near their wheels, already getting set up to throw and talking animatedly. Hunk let out a quiet sigh, while Pidge made her annoyance known a bit more loudly with a small growl. Keith decided he was going to outright ignore the feeling in his chest that he was starting to suspect wasn’t something to concern the doctor with at all. “Hey, it’s fine, maybe she’ll leave earlier.” Keith shrugged, stepping forwards first, walking into the studio to set his stuff down. Pidge and Hunk shared a look before following. 

Pidge finally shrugged, “Well, whatever, what should we get for p-” 

“Pizza’s here!” Shiro called, walking into the main studio entrance with a stack of pizzas balanced on one arm and a bag of sodas in the other. Allura walked in behind him and put a plastic table cloth on one of the work tables so Shiro could set them down. 

“You two are too good for this world!” Lance exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air and standing to make his way over.

Keith smiled as he walked over with Pidge and Hunk. Allura passed out plates as Shiro set out the pizzas. She paused when she handed Nyma a plate, “Oh, sorry, um…”

“Nyma.” She supplied.

“Nyma, yes. We didn’t know you would be here. Hopefully you can find a pizza you like.” Allura seemed polite, but only as far as etiquette required.

“Oh it’s fine, I’ll be happy with anything.” Nyma replied, standing very close to Lance, who was already getting a few slices on his plate.

They all got their pizzas and sat on another table Allura put a table cover on. Keith was a bit miffed to be next to Lance, but he prefered to sit at the edge of the table so he couldn’t help it. Hunk spoke first, “So, Nyma, Lance tells me you used to work at Galra studio.” He said it more like an accusation.

Nyma nodded, “Yes, and I have to say that Castle Ceramics is a very lovely studio. It fits Lance well.”

Lance swelled with pride, “Yeah well, Castle Ceramics beats Galra Studio any day. It’s way better here.” Keith glanced over and saw a pinched look on Nyma’s face, but didn’t think much about it.

“So I know Galra is our competitors, but I don’t know much else?” Keith looked to Lance, but it was Shiro who answered.

“Galra Studio’s is the other ceramics place in the area, so that makes them our direct competitors. They are set up more like a school though, where we offer more casual options for people.” 

“My father used to work with Zarkon, Galra’s owner. They used to be partners here together, but Zarkon had ideas that my father didn’t feel would work for the vision he had when he started this studio.” Allura supplied. “Zarkon then took off and created Galra Studios.” She sounded a bit bitter, and there were more details to this story, but Keith new better than to press.

“I used to work there.” Lance said, sounding a bit ashamed of it, “I recently started here though, and it’s made my life a lot better.”

“You always seemed happy enough at Galra.” Nyma said, putting her hand on Lance’s arm. “Were you really that upset?”

Lance looked down at his pizza crust, “Yeah, well, after everything that happened…” He shook his head, “It was a bad place for me. I miss some of my old coworkers, but that’s about it.”  
Keith saw something in the way Lance was acting that made him upset. It was time for a subject change, “So I guess that explains why we’ll win the competition then. We’re just that much better.” Lance gave him a thankful smile and Keith’s heart did a little flip. 

“Work life doesn’t always reflect in your work. It takes discipline to master anything.” Nyma said, making Lance’s smile drop. Keith couldn’t help but wonder what that was about, though everyone else simply ignored that Nyma said anything. Hunk did give her a side eye, but then Shiro changed the subject to a new glaze combination he had been experimenting with. 

After they ate and cleaned up they all sat down to work on the wheels, except for Allura, who brought out a beautiful sculpture to a nearby table and started working on it. “Wow, Allura, that’s amazing.” Keith said, looking at the delicate curves and intricate carvings on a statue of a mermaid. “I’m almost afraid to touch it and load it in a kiln.” 

Allura smiled, “Thank you, Keith. Though this is hardly near finished, what I’m most looking forwards to is the glazing,” Her eyes shimmered in excitement, “I have been experimenting with some glazes that will make it absolutely sparkling.”

“I can’t wait.” 

“Though I am most excited for a collaboration piece Shiro and I are working on.” Allura admitted, looking to where Shiro was working on something on the wheel.

“Why aren’t you working on that then? Since you’re both here?” Keith asked, eyebrow raising.

Alllura looked over to Nyma then back to Keith, “We want to be sure our other pieces are done in time too.” She said, but it was obvious the real reason was the girl who was currently flirting with Lance by flinging some water at him. Keith nodded anyway.

“Hey, Keith, want to try throwing something other than a bowl?” Shiro asked, and Keith wandered over. Shiro, Hunk and Pidge all giving him a lesson on making vases. Halfway through Lance looked over and told them it looked more like a jar and they agreed. So that’s how Keith learned to make a rim, then a lid the right size to sit on top of it. They all told him it was great, though Keith was pretty sure it was as basic as it comes. “You have the technique down, that’s what counts.” Shiro assured him, “You can decorate it with carvings after you trim it.”

“Okay,” Keith nodded, “Thanks guys.” 

Everyone waved him off and they continued to work on their projects, giving Keith pointers as he practiced jars and vases. Before anyone knew it it was late, and they were tired. As everyone cleaned Nyma and Lance still worked. They were all ready to go, while the two still worked and Lance volunteered to lock up. Hunk and Pidge seemed wary, but everyone agreed. 

So they left Lance and Nyma alone in the studio, which was probably why Keith was having a hard time getting to sleep.

 

~~~

 

“Lance, can you show me the cage again? I’d like to get some more clay and try to make something big.” Nyma asked, about an hour and a half after everyone else had left.

Lance grinned and stood, going to wash his hands, “Of course, princess.” He winked. They washed their hands and walked to the cage.

Lance took out his keys, moving to open it when Nyma stopped him, “Oooh can I do it?” She looked excited by it, so how could Lance refuse? He handed her the keys and she opened it, he put the doorstop in front of the door so they wouldn’t get locked in.

He stepped inside to help her get the bag of clay when she tapped him. He turned and she kissed him, pushing against him until his back hit one of the shelves. He closed his eyes and let himself relax, kissing back. He heard a jingling and something cold closed around his wrist. Next thing he knew he was looking at his wrist cuffed to the heavy shelves, “Woah… this is kinda…” He started with a flirty tone then stopped when he heard the cage door slam shut. 

His head whipped over to see Nyma placing the keys to the cage and the cuffs on the nearby counter, waving as she sauntered off. “This was nice, Lance, but I have some work to do.” She turned and gave him a wink before going to the side door and letting in a man with white hair and an easy going stride.

“Thanks babe.” The man said, giving a little salute to Lance who was staring at them, jaw slack.

“Rolo?” Lance blinked, watching as the two ignored him and went towards the studio, “Hey wait! What-?!” He was cut off by the sound of something smashing, and that’s when it hit him. His heart sank to the floor as he heard more sounds of destruction. He knew he had been used, and that he had played right into this. This was all his fault.

After what felt like hours calling and begging for them to stop or leave, Lance’s voice was hoarse. Nyma and Rolo came back soon after, Nyma walking to the cage to wink at him and blow him a kiss. “Have fun with the mess in the morning. Hope you get a good night's sleep, you’ll need it.” With that she walked out, Rolo holding the door for her. He nodded towards him before following his girlfriend out. 

Lance felt helpless, tears falling down his face as he tried to slide down to the floor, but finding it wrenched his arm upwards at an uncomfortable angle. He wiggled and got back into a standing position, when something clattered to the floor. He looked down and gasped, his phone! “Yes, yes, yes… oh god they’re going to be so mad at me.” He realized as he struggled, but finally managed to pick up his phone. 

He stared at it, noticing it was low on battery. Nervously he took a deep breath and then called his best buddy in the whole world, Hunk. His heart dropped when he reached a voicemail. “Shit…” he then tried the next person who would likely go easy on him, Shiro.

The phone went to voicemail again.

Lance groaned and hung up. He had to call Pidge, the one person who would make fun of him the whole time while helping. He dialed, and got excited when the ringing was cut-off, only to be told the call was ended. Lance tried again, but this time it went straight to voicemail. Pidge had turned their phone off.

Lance was about to cry again as he dialed Allura, then actually did as he was met with another voicemail. He scrolled through his contacts list, wondering if he was going to be stuck here all night when he came across Keith’s number.

He held his breath for a second, then released it as he pressed the call button. He crossed his fingers and hoped.

 

~~~

 

Keith was staring at his ceiling in the dark, thinking over the day and why he felt so wrong about leaving the studio. He decided it was probably what Nyma had said earlier. He didn’t trust her, granted he hardly knew her. He was starting to ease into sleep, telling himself that it was probably just jealousy that rubbed him the wrong way. 

Then his phone rang, lighting up the dark room. 

Keith blinked and squinted at the caller i.d., he wondered why Lance would be calling him around midnight. Then his eyes widened a bit as he remembered his suspicions. He picked up, fumbling and dropping the phone before getting it and holding it to his ear, “Hello?” 

“Thank god! Uh… h-hey Keith?” Lance sounded both relieved and scared.

“Lance? Why are you calling me at…” he squinted at his alarm clock, “At almost one in the morning?”

“I’ve tried to call the others but everyone else is asleep!” Lance defended, but Keith heard an edge in his voice. “I need help, please don’t be mad at me…” Lance sounded like a kicked puppy, voice cracking slightly, “I really messed up.”


	9. The Cage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much angst in this one... like... so much. I also don't want to trigger anyone so...
> 
> WARNINGS: abuse mention, slight homophobia mention, stalking, abusive relationship.
> 
> If any of these trigger you I'll put a chapter summary at the start of the next chapter, so you can skip this one :) 
> 
> I don't think it's mentioned in too much detail, but if you're unsure I'd rather you just don't risk it.

Keith arrived at Castle Ceramics in about twenty minutes. As soon as Lance had said he was in trouble he had been wide awake and getting ready to go. He pulled out his keys as he reached for the doors to the shop entrance, but it turned out he didn’t need them since they were still unlocked. He threw open the door and rushed inside towards the cage. “Lance!” He saw the tan boy slouching against the cuffs in a way that had to be painful. Lance blearily looked up at him, eyes puffy like he had been crying. Keith had never thought he could look so vulnerable, and it hurt to see him like this. He was at a loss for words, especially since he was not usually the person who comforted others. He looked around quickly and spotted the keys on the counter, grabbing them them and unlocking the cage, making sure to prop the door open. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m here.” He said quietly as Lance looked away from him while he undid the handcuffs.

As soon as Lance was free Keith found himself being hugged. After a few stunned seconds Keith put his arms around Lance and held him while he cried. Keith didn’t know what to do, so he just held him, patting his back every so often, and a little part of him was memorizing the way it felt to hold Lance like this. When he was finally ready to talk Lance squeezed him tighter and then tilted his head instead of pulling away, “Thank you, Keith… I really owe you one.”

“You owe me like twelve.” Keith joked, smiling and unconsciously reaching up to wipe a tear from Lance’s eye. Lance smiled softly until the action caught up with their tired minds. Keith cleared his throat and they stepped apart, blushing. “We should uh check the damage to the rest of the studio since we’re here,” he decided, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked at the knocked over displays in the store area and the items strewn about the store.

“R-right…” Lance flinched a little, taking in the damage as well. 

Keith went to the door and locked it so that no one could come in without a key or them knowing. Then he walked quietly with Lance to the main studio. What greeted them was pure chaos, the sinks were clogged up with the water running, wheels were set on high, tools were scattered, lockers beaten in. The storage area was devastating, all the bisque pieces were completely smashed, as well as their wet projects for the competition. Allura’s statue- or what had once been her statue- was thrown onto the ground and resembled more of a slab now. Several cabinet doors were now falling off ripped out hinges, clay was splattered everywhere, trash was dumped all over the tables and the floor. Keith looked over to Lance who seemed ready to cry again, shaking, and no doubt blaming himself. “Hey,” Keith said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder, “At least we caught it early, let's start turning things off.” He offered him a small smile, and he returned it with a small nod. They set about turning off the wheels and the faucets. 

“I need to check the glaze room next. Do you want to come with me?” Keith asked, not sure if Lance wanted to be alone or needed company right now. He knew he would personally prefer to be alone, but he realized he hardly knew the first thing about Lance. In all honesty Keith had no clue whether or not he was being comforting at all. 

Apparently whatever he was doing was helpful, because Lance seemed less shaken now that he realized how bad it would have been if he hadn’t been able to reach Keith. “I’d rather stick with you…” He said, following him to the glaze room. As soon as they opened the door they groaned, the glaze buckets had all been turned upside down or on their sides, creating a small sea of glaze washing over their feet. “Urgh, this is going to stain!” Lance cried, picking up his foot that was now coated in glaze and shaking it a little. 

Keith trudged through, rolling his eyes at Lance, and started checking the minerals, thankfully nothing was touched. “I guess I have my work cut out for me tomorrow,” he mused, turning and realizing from Lance’s expression that that was probably the worst thing to say.

“I’m so sorry, Keith... “ Lance shook his head, he bit his lip before continuing “I’m going to help fix this. God I fucked up so bad… I’m so sorry. I was such an idiot for thinking with my-”

“Lance.” Keith cut him off, “It’s alright, you couldn’t have known. Nyma tricked you, locked you up, you didn’t do this, she did. All you did was trust the wrong person at the wrong time.” He shrugged, walking past him, putting his hand around his shoulders to turn and guide him out towards the kilns with him. “Don’t blame yourself. It could have been anyone.”

“Shiro wouldn’t have let this happen.”

“Shiro is an outlier and shouldn’t be counted.” Keith shared a small smile with Lance who allowed himself a small laugh at the joke. “We all know he is a literal poster child for good behavior.” With a small squeeze to his shoulder Keith reluctantly let go and walked through the back door to check on the kilns, dread slamming into him as he saw some coils from the electric kilns at his feet mixed with some pieces of shelving. “Shit.”

“Oh no… wait- is Kaltenecker okay!?” Lance gasped, walking over to where the kiln was shut off, but undamaged. Keith flipped on the outside lights and they saw the Galra studio’s symbol spray painted on the side of it. Lance sighed, “I guess it was too hot to touch anything.”

“Thank goodness.” Keith breathed, walking over to grab his specialized safety goggles, then he opened the peephole that showed the cones he set in there to see the firing process. He thought for a minute then pulled away, replacing the plug and setting his goggles down. He then started to work on the kiln getting lit again. “It was shut down at a good place, I can restart the firing and everything should be fine. Can you see what kilns were damaged?”

Lance nodded, walking over to the electric kilns, but stopping when they heard some frantic mewling. Lance glanced over then dropped down on his knees, ignoring some debris from the smashed equipment. “Hey guys…” The kittens, even Red, ran over to cuddle him, crying out. “What’s wrong? Wh-” he looked around. “Where’s Luna? Keith? Where’s their momma?”

Keith stopped lighting the kiln, turning off the gas and checking in the kiln just in case before deeming it safe to light. “I don’t see her.” He looked around, only pausing to light the burners. He walked over, scooping up Red and Poppy. He held the kittens to his chest as him and Lance walked around the back area searching for their mother. “Maybe she’s off doing cat things? These guys are probably usually asleep. The commotion might have woken them up.”

“I hope so…” Lance frowned, though he hardly sounded convinced. They set the kittens down, though the little fuzz balls followed them anyway. Lance stopped to pet them more while Keith finished checking the kilns.

“Only one electric kiln was damaged. The other was firing some bisque, but it looks like it was shaken. I won’t be able to tell until it’s done firing.” Keith reported, then opened the brick kilns, “These are trashed…” He groaned, “We’ll need to get these fixed. I’ll be so behind…”

“Keith, I-”

“Stop apologizing, Lance.” Keith looked over at him with a small glare, “Let’s just go check the employee rooms and bathrooms. We should try to contact Allura or Shiro too.”

“I tried them first when I was locked up,” Lance frowned, “They’re probably fast asleep.”

“Then we keep trying until they wake up.” Keith sighed, walking into the employee room, Lance on his heels. The kittens decided to stay outside, curling up near a kiln for it’s warmth. “We can start cleaning this too I guess.” He looked around, mostly the furniture was just thrown around, Lance’s locker was the only one smashed up, and the office looked like someone was searching for something.

“We should take pictures first. For evidence or something, right?” Lance said, frowning at his locker door, then he yawned. 

“Yeah, we should.” Keith pulled out his phone and took a picture of where the nap couch was thrown around. He then started flipping it back over and putting it into place. 

“What are you doing? We need to check the bathrooms too.” Lance said, stifling another yawn.

“I’ll do that. You need some rest if you’re going to be of any use.” Keith huffed, patting the cushions into place. “There’s no way you could have slept cuffed to the shelf like that.” He pointed to the nap couch, other hand on his hip as he stared Lance down until he sat on the couch.

“Are you actually playing prince charming right now?” Lance got one of those flirty smiles on his face, though it seemed a little forced now. “Even after all this being my fault?”

“I’m just being logical,” Keith rolled his eyes, “If it makes me less prince-like you can trade me something in return.”

“Like what, my sweet prince?” Lance batted his eyelashes, then yawned again. “Do you want a kiss? My hand in marriage? A few goats?”

Keith rolled his eyes, though he considered the kiss option for a second. He blushed and shook his head. “I really want to know why they would do something like this to you. I get the rivalry thing for trashing the studio, but Nyma knew you worked here… It just seems weird, especially with your locker being the only one smashed up too. Do you think it was random that she chose? Or is there a reason to hurt you like this that you failed to mention?”

Lance’s expression fell, eyes darkening. He scooted over and patted the seat next to him. Keith was hesitant, but sat down, feeling like he just wrecked what ever progress he had made with him. He opened his mouth to apologize when Lance held up a hand to gather his thoughts, Keith thought it was a good opportunity to text Shiro that there was an emergency at the studio. 

After a few more minutes and a deep breath Lance put his hands in his lap, glancing at Keith before looking back down at the floor between his feet. “I think, well I know, that going after and hurting me was on purpose,” he admitted. “I told you I used to work at Galra Ceramics, but I didn’t mention that I never left on the best of terms.”

Keith tilted his head, “How bad were the terms to result in something like this?”

“Very bad?” Lance glanced at him again then sighed, sitting back, “I should start at the beginning, but it’s a long story… the long story short is-”

“I want the long story,” Keith interrupted, putting his hand on Lance’s thigh, “The whole thing.” He gestured around, “We’ll probably be here awhile anyway.”

Lance smiled sadly but nodded. “You asked for it. Let's take pictures and start cleaning while we’re at it though. I probably won’t be able to sleep anyway.” He stood, holding his hand out for Keith’s. 

He frowned, but allowed himself to be helped up, “Are you sure? It can wait, Lance.” Keith wasn’t sure if he liked the idea of keeping Lance up any longer.

“No, nope, no! I’ve already decided to tell you, so I’m going to tell you.” Lance led the way to the bathrooms, luckily they found only more graffiti, nothing smashed. Lance turned to Keith to start the story, and noticed he was blushing. Looking down, he saw they were still holding hands. He let go and turned away, deciding to pretend it didn’t happen, walking to the supply closet and starting his story while they pulled out brooms and started to prep the mop buckets. “I got the job at Galra studio because I had a background in ceramics, and they said they enjoyed my artwork too. I was promised chances for growth and promotions, fame, the whole nine yards. Well, a few years went by and I never got anything, not even a raise.” Lance made a face at something gross on the ground he was sweeping. Keith kept quiet, just listening.

“I noticed that even the new people were getting treated better than me, and that even though they told me I was a perfect employee, they didn’t even let me train anyone. It’s not like I didn’t try either. Every position opening, every chance for promotion, I was there jumping through all their hoops, turning in art, applying and giving it my all. Only for them to practically throw it back in my face and promote someone new that had no idea what they were doing.” Lance shook his head, gesturing with the broom in his hand. “Imagine losing a manager position to someone who has only been working there a week! They only did the applications for promotions for show, they always had someone in mind every time.” 

“Eesh.” Keith grimaced, imagining how mad he’d be.

“Yeah,” Lance scoffed, sweeping more aggressively now, “When I requested a raise they actually laughed in my face. Literally laughed!”

“So you just left?” Keith frowned, not sure if this was supposed to satisfy his curiosity or answer his question.

Lance seemed to deflate a little, “Not exactly…” He sighed, “I stayed, I didn’t know where else to go, and there was this guy…,” he shook his head, “I’ll get to him in a bit. Point is, I stuck around like the idiot i am even though they treated me like crap. I started to open up to some of my coworkers who I trusted. Nyma was one of them. We were all hanging out one night, drinking, and I somehow let it slip that I was bi. That led to a whole other conversation and they found out that I had a crush on that guy.” Lance paused, looking like he was haunted for a second before continuing. “That’s when the real problems started. Other coworkers found out, I’d find hate letters in my locker, my stuff defaced, and I got cornered after work a few times. Some of the other guys-” Lance stopped again when he heard a clatter.

Keith had dropped his broom, staring at Lance, fists clenched, “What!? They just let that happen? They-? Didn’t you tell anyone? Didn’t anyone do something?”

Lance held up his hands in a calming gesture, “Keith, it’s in the past… And yeah, I told someone.” He waited until Keith calmed down enough to start cleaning again. He sighed, “I tried to tell Zarkon himself, but he was out of town. I ended up talking to his son, Lotor. The thing about Lotor is, well, he was that guy I mentioned earlier…” He winced in anticipation of an outburst, and glanced at Keith.

He had a frown but no judgement in his eyes, “You had a crush on the owner’s son?”

“Yep. So you can imagine my surprise when Lotor actually handled the situation himself.” Lance started sweeping the mess into a dustpan and putting it in the trash, even though a shovel would have been easier. “When he asked how it had started, well, I panicked. Told him everything, even about my feelings towards him. I’m not very good at confrontation, but well... Turned out I had caught his eye too.” Lance let himself have a small smile, “Things started going great then. I was being treated better at work, given a raise for the first time, and they seemed to actually consider me for things. Though they never ended up picking me.” He sighed, “It was around that time Shiro started working there too. They loved him there, put him in charge of classes and everything. I bring this up because Shiro and I became fast friends. We ate lunch together, talked about ideas, and even hung out outside of work on a few occasions.” They went to go check on the mop buckets with Keith, most of the trash swept up now.

“Seems that things were getting tolerable.” Keith said, turning off the faucet and grabbing a mop. They walked back out and Lance started to finish up the sweeping while Keith began to mop.

“Yeah, it was great, until Lotor got jealous... He actually ‘forbid’ me from talking to Shiro, my coworker! Like seriously? So I told him he had nothing to worry about, and kept going on about my business. Then things began to get bad again. I started to get targeted and cornered more often. The difference this time though was that Shiro was there to help, and no one really wanted to mess with him. They tried to wait to get me alone, like before or after work. But Shiro started escorting me to and from work like the literal angel he is.”

Keith huffed with a small smile to conceal how mad he was Lance had been hurt like this, “That sounds like Shiro, alright.”

Lance laughed, “Yeah… It was all looking up, that is, until Lotor found out. This time instead of dealing with the problem he decided that I was the problem. He started hurting me, and threatening me.”   
“He hurt you?” Keith all but snarled.

Lance whipped around to stare at Keith’s outburst, but nodded “Well… yeah, and he threatened to do worse if I didn’t listen to him. So I kept it quiet, I mean, at the time I believed it was my fault anyway. That I should have listened to him in the first place and none of this would have started.” He paused, frowning at a ripped up newspaper. “I still kind of feel it was partly my fault...Anyway, Shiro eventually figured it out without me speaking a word to him. He told me about Castle Ceramics and how there were multiple positions open, how he was going to apply and that it’d probably be way better for me there. For me to get away from Lotor and the toxic work environment...” Lance smiled softly, “He made it sound so perfect, so simple.”

“It wasn’t that simple, was it?” Keith guessed, watching Lance set the broom aside and wrapped his arms around himself.

“No, it wasn’t simple at all. I waited until I got the job, then told Lotor I had even applied. I explained it would be better this way, at least better for me. He-... he didn’t like that, obviously.” The way Lance’s expression changed as he curled in on himself made Keith’s heart hurt. Lance took a shuddering breath, “I got hurt so bad I ended up in the emergency room.” Keith set the mop down and cautiously walked over to Lance, reaching his arms out slowly. Lance looked at him then stepped forwards with a small nod to show it was okay for Keith to touch him. Lance continued after a moment, “Shiro… he found out and convinced me to officially break it off. I- I was so scared. Him and Hunk were there with me wh-when I decided to finally leave him… When I told him.” Lance buried his face in Keith’s jacket and Keith had no idea what to do so he gently squeezed him and held him closer, letting him take his time. “It was such a mess,” Lance shook his head, “Then it got even worse, he became obsessed and started stalking me, nothing was safe. I was his and only his, as far as he was concerned. Hell he even sent people to my apartment… I had to move, Keith. I couldn’t even risk visiting family.” Lance sniffed then backed up, rubbing at his face, “Jeez, I’m sorry, I’m just a mess tonight… or morning I guess- fuck I’m so sorry for dragging you into my shitty problems.”

Keith let go of him completely, “Stop apologizing, Lance. It’s alright to cry, but none of this is your fault.”

Lance gave him a thankful look then gently pulled away going back to the broom, “It… it eventually calmed down… but I can’t help thinking that Lotor’s starting this shit again.”

Keith gently placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, his face was determined, a fire in his eyes, “If he tries anything he’ll be dealing with me this time.” He gave a small smirk, “I’ve also got room in my apartment if you need to move again. Y’know, if worse comes to worse. For the record, I’m glad you let me know all of this. Makes being here in the middle of the night not so bad, because I’m here for you.”

Lance seemed a bit anxious, but his smile was more genuine now, “Aww thanks, Keith,” he laughed, “You’re being a knight in shining armor again though.”

Keith laughed and raised an eyebrow, “Then I might have to just accept a kiss as my reward.” He winked playfully then turned around to go back to cleaning. Mostly it was to hide his blush as he wondered where the hell that had come from. Lance seemed to be shocked into silence too, and they went about cleaning, not really talking about it. Lance disappeared for a minute, then music came on and he returned, smiling a little at Keith before continuing to work.

When the floor was as clean as it possibly could get in a place where people work with dirt constantly, they moved on to try and unclog the sinks. It was when they were trying to figure out how to clean the glaze room that Keith’s phone finally rang. Shiro’s groggy voice was on the other end, “What happened? Is everything okay? Is anyone hurt?”

Keith glanced at Lance then sighed, “No, everyone’s fine, Lance and I are just tired. Um… There was a bit of a situation at the studio. It’s a mess.”

“It’s an art studio, Keith. It’s a constant mess.” Shiro seemed unamused. “Why are you there at five in the morning anyway?”

“No… ugh…” Keith frowned, “It’s the kilns are broken, graffiti, smashed pottery, a literal inch of glaze on the floor of the glaze room kind of mess. I’ll let Lance tell you the whole story when you get here, but we can’t get ahold of Allura and you’re the first one who got back to us.”

Shiro sounded wide awake now, “What? Why would- …. Wait… was it something to do with Nyma?”

“Yeah.”

“I knew I should have listened to Hunk… Okay, well, I’ll try and get ahold of Allura. I’ll get down there as soon as I can.” Keith could hear rustling as he got ready. “Keith?”

“Hmm?”

“Did Lance get hurt?” He sounded concerned, Keith figured it was with good reason.

“Just his pride,” Keith watched as Lance yawned, almost falling over, “And maybe his sleep schedule too.”

“Try and make him sleep. I’ll be there to help soon.”

“Okay, bye Shiro.” Keith hung up and smiled at Lance, “Come on, you need to lay down.”

“I can’t leave you to clean my mess.” Lance pouted, though he allowed Keith to push him towards the employee room.

“One, it’s not your mess. Two, there will be plenty of mess when you wake up. And three, Shiro’s on his way to help, and he ordered me to make sure you nap.” Keith fibbed as he guided him to the couch and made him sit down.

“Pfft,” Lance rolled his eyes, yawning again though he actually laid down this time, “he’s such a dad. Should call him clay dad.”

As soon as his head hit the cushion Lance was asleep. Keith smiled softly at him and took off his jacket, draping it over him before walking out.


	10. Kintsugi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kintsugi is the japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, silver, or platinum. 
> 
> I'll let Coran explain it, maybe you'll see why I named this chapter after it? ;)
> 
> Also my beta reader is not in town or near internet to beta this, so please excuse any mistakes!   
> Also also, I made this really long to make up for not posting in awhile. I've had some life sucker punch me in the face, you know how that goes.
> 
> Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments and for reading this!

The studio had to close for the day, and everyone was called in to help with the clean up. Lance had woken up a few hours later, walking out into the main room still holding Keith’s jacket. He asked Pidge where Keith was and they pointed him to the back porch with a knowing smirk. Lance found Keith cleaning out the cans the glaze was mixed in with a hose, shirtless. He stood there staring for a minute, dumbfounded until he was spooked by Shiro clearing his throat behind him. Jumping he turned and blinked at Shiro who simply raised an eyebrow and walked by, carrying a tool kit towards one of the damaged kilns. Hunk was working there, both him and Keith looked over at the noise and smiled when they saw Lance. “Feeling better?” Hunk asked.

“Uh y-yeah… thanks, Hunk.” Lance gave his best friend a small smile. “Keith, where do you want your jacket?”

Keith blinked at him then shook his head “You can leave it on the nap couch, I’ll get it later. Did you sleep well?”

“I did… surprisingly enough. Though I feel bad you guys have been cleaning this mess up the whole time.” Lance frowned.

Shiro grinned “Well don’t feel too bad, you need to go talk to Allura and then you’ll be helping us fix the studio too.” Lance groaned and turned to dramatically sulk while looking for Allura. “She’s in the office!” Shiro called helpfully with a chuckle.

 

~~~

 

It was taking ages to clean the studio, but by the time lunch came around it was starting to look more or less like normal. Allura decided they all should just take a break together, so they locked up and walked to a nearby burger joint. Keith figured Allura didn’t blame Lance for everything either since they were playfully debating the deliciousness of dipping fries in milkshakes. Though Allura soon finally gave in and relented that it was actually kind of delicious they started another conversation, but it abruptly stopped when she clapped her hands together and gave everyone an excited look. “I’ve got it!” she exclaimed “We should have a pit firing! We can make it an all day event, just us. It will take some of the stress away, and we can work on pieces for the show!”

“That’s a wonderful idea, Princess.” Shiro smiled, everyone shared a look and snickered when Shiro realized what he said.

“Keith, were there any smooth pieces that we made in any of the undamaged kilns?” Hunk asked, Shiro looking at him like he was an angel.

“Uh… I think so. I’ll have to double check when it’s cool enough, but I’m pretty sure.” he shrugged “Why do they need to be smooth? How do they even get smooth?”

Lance put his arm around Keith’s shoulders “Oh Keith, there’s so much to teach you. Don’t worry, Lancey Lance will show you the ropes.”

“Lancey Lance?” Pidge scoffed. “I don’t think Keith needs pointers from someone who willingly calls themselves Lancey Lance.”

“Says the person named after a bird.” Lance huffed back. 

“Hey, cut it out you two. We should be heading back anyway, there’s still a lot to do before we can even think about a bonfire.” Shiro reprimanded. 

“Yes dad.” They drawled in unison, making Keith and Hunk laugh. They cleaned up and started walking back.

When they were finally in view of the studio they saw some people out front. Keith wasn’t sure but he was fairly certain Lance and Shiro seemed very tense when they noticed them. Since everyone seemed to slow down he decided to go first, the others following, Shiro next to him. “Sorry, we’re closed for maintenance today.” Keith told them when they approached.

The man who seemed to be the leader spoke first in a silky smooth voice “So I’ve heard.” He had long platinum hair that seemed especially soft, the others around him seemed to be women, though Keith didn’t get too good of a look at them because Shiro spoke up, startling him with the harshness in his tone.

“You seem to have forgotten the fact that you’re not welcome here.” 

“As if I’d want to come here for you, Champion. I’m just here to check on my boyfriend.” the man smirked, Keith saw Shiro’s fists tighten.

“I’m not your boyfriend, Lotor.” Lance spoke up. Keith turned, blinking as he looked between Lance and Lotor, before settling a death glare on Lotor.

“What would ever give you that idea, my darling?” Lotor seemed genuinely surprised.

“Uh the fact you threw me out of your house in the rain and yelled at me to never come back? Or how about the day after when you wouldn’t take no for an answer and the cops were called? Pretty sure I also said ‘we’re through’ more than once.” Lance glared, crossing his arms, Hunk stood on the other side of him, doing the same. Keith realized for the first time how menacing Hunk could be when he tried.

Lotor laughed and rolled his eyes “I also said you’d regret it. And I’m sure you do by now, baby. Don’t you remember all the gifts and the dates? Things were so nice. I’ve decided to let you come back to me now.” he put on a charming smile, holding out a hand towards Lance.

Keith hadn’t realized he moved until Shiro was pulling him back. “Leave, now.” Allura commanded, pulling out her phone “Or I will have you arrested.” 

He glared at her and then at Lance, weighing his options and deciding that it was a losing game with Allura. “I will see you later, this isn’t over.” with that he turned and his entourage followed, walking over to the nice car parked out front. 

“Prick.” Pidge huffed, walking past and towards the studio, holding Lance’s hand as Hunk put his arm around him. Keith was torn between wanting to comfort Lance and wanting to chase after the guy who made him upset. He resigned himself to just walking inside with the others. 

Instead of dwelling on it Lance threw himself into the clean up as soon as he was inside. Keith thought that was a bit odd of the resident drama queen, but decided not to press it, instead he went to unload the kilns before cleaning up the locker room.

A few hours later Keith went to help mix more glazes, since most of the other work was almost complete. He paused outside of the door to put on his mask and heard Shiro and Lance’s muffled voices. “-ld he even show up here?” 

“Shiro, I-.... it’s not a big deal. I’m handling it.” 

“Doesn’t sound like it. It sounds like there’s something you’re leaving out.”

“Whaaaa? No.”

“Lance.” there was the dad voice, and a sigh from Lance.

“Okay, so… I may have noticed him lurking around my apartment.”

“how many times have you noticed this?”

“A few…”

Shiro made a disapproving noise. “And?”

“Aaand what?....” a pause “Urgh fine! I’ve been getting weird calls, and letters, and stuff, and it’s like it was when he first started that shit, okay?! I can handle it though, I won’t bother you with this!” 

“Lance… it’s not a bother. I want you to be safe, we all do.” Shiro said gently, Keith peeked through the door, watching Shiro gather Lance in a comforting hug that Lance seemed almost uncomfortable with. “I want you to tell someone next time something like that happens. You’re more than welcome to stay a few days if you need to.”

“I don’t need to, I’m fine.” Lance squirmed away, turning his back to sift the glaze.

“I just want to make sure you-”

“I said I’m fine Shiro!” Lance growled.

Keith walked in, wanting to stop the fight “You sure sound fine.”

“Keith! Not you too.” Lance groaned “How long were you standing there? Creep.”

“I was just putting on my mask, but I heard a bit.” He saw the hurt in Lance’s face and decided that Shiro’s approach wasn’t worth it, even if he wanted to demand answers. “I’m here for you, but if you don’t want to talk about it we won’t.” He gave Shiro a pointed look, then his gaze softened as he looked back to Lance “Which glazes have you done?” he asked, walking to check on them as Lance gratefully told them the progress they made.

By the time they had finished mixing the glazes the sun was gone. They walked out to watch as Pidge and Hunk scrambled to go outside with a bowl, screeching about forgetting the kittens. The three of them glanced at each other before smiling and following them outside. The kittens came out after a minute of calling them, walking over to eat happily mewling at everyone. Lance frowned and looked up at Keith “Luna’s still not around.”

Keith frowned and saw Lance was right, he looked up to Shiro who started looking around. “Sometimes she likes to climb up…” he climbed on a few bricks and stood on his toes to peer into a small space between the wall and the studio. He made a clicking noise and reached up, then let out a shout as he fell back on his butt, Luna landing contentedly in his lap with a proud meow. Everyone laughed and Keith saw Lance let out a sigh of relief, he couldn’t help but find it adorable. Soon the kittens were fed and everyone was playing with their favorites. Allura found them like this, but instead of telling them to get back to work she smiled and joined them, claiming it was a perfect opportunity to plan the bonfire. 

“We should have it tomorrow!” She chirped, everyone stared at her “What?”

“Isn’t that, I don’t know, a little short notice?” Hunk asked “We need to get supplies and prep snacks….”

“Maybe we can have it in a couple of days,” Shiro suggested “So we have time to get everything together and rest up. I heard there’s going to be a full moon around that time too.” 

“The full moon is in four days.” Pidge supplied.

“Then we can go night surfing!” Lance grinned, holding blue on top of his head like a hat. The kitten didn’t seem to mind, it was purring contentedly. “It’s perfect!”

Allura laughed and nodded “Okay, four days from now. What all should we bring?”

With that they talked and planned into the night, until everyone was too tired to do any more work. They locked up the studio and went home. Though Keith couldn’t get rid of the bad feeling in the back of his mind, and he could swear that Lance seemed reluctant to head home. 

 

~~~

 

The next few days were more cleaning and getting the studio back in order. Classes continued, customers whose work was destroyed got dealt with accordingly, and Keith was back to firing the kilns.   
On the day before the pit firing Keith found Shiro working alone in the studio. He invited him to sit next to him and try the wheel. Keith was struggling and Shiro helped him out “The most important part is finding your center. It’s about applying the right amount of pressure. It takes more effort than you think, and when you really want it, when it’s almost center, that’s when it gets to be the hardest. You just need to be stronger, and then…” with a final push the clay fell into perfect center “Then everything falls into place.”

“Why do I feel like you’re talking about more than just clay?” Keith smiled, gently touching the clay as it spun. 

“Maybe the clay represents life, maybe it represents love, maybe it’s just clay.” Shiro winked “depends on you.”

“I hate it when you get all cryptic.” he laughed and started to open the clay, attempting to make a vase, and finding it way easier now that it was actually centered.

“I know you like the challenge of figuring it out, don’t lie.” Shiro smirked, going back to his own work. Keith simply rolled his eyes and attempted to make the form taller, getting a bit frustrated that it was flaring out at the top. Shiro reached over and pulled his hands away, slowing the wheel down with the pedal. “Patience yields focus, Keith.” Shiro smirked as Keith gave him a small smile, the vase getting taller now. 

“Patience yields focus.” he repeated, then slowly started to shape the vase. 

“Are you ready for the beach tomorrow?” Shiro asked after awhile.

“Not really. I’m not big on the ocean.” Keith admitted. “I grew up in the desert, or the city, not really a lot of time to go swimming.”

“You don’t have to just swim. There’s other stuff to do at the beach.” Shiro said, stopping his wheel and looking at the large round shape he had created, he squinted then started the wheel again, going back to shape it. “Besides we will be pit firing some ceramics, that’s a lot of fun. I know how you like to play with fire.”

Keith laughed, “Yeah, but I’m not a little pyro anymore.” 

“Says the man whose job involves fires.”

Hunk and Pidge came inside, carrying tools “The final kiln’s all fixed up!” Hunk announced, putting the tool box away in a locked cabinet. Pidge wandered over to critique Keith and tell him he was doing a pretty good job. Keith finished his vase and got a board to put it on and put in the damp room. Pidge and hunk remembered they were going to help him trim and they got the things he made from before out. 

Keith quickly found out that he hated trimming after he went through the bottom of his second bowl. Shiro kindly reminded him about his advice from earlier, and it helped a little. “Thanks, Shiro” After he was done trimming he cleaned up his work area to stay out of the way while Hunk’s class was getting started. 

He went outside to load the final kiln and set the others, and with that his job for the day was done. He went into the employee room to clock out. He found Lance trying to straighten up his locker door with a hammer. Or that’s what Keith assumed he was attempting to do, but Lance was clutching his hand while kissing it, and doing a weird dance. Keith raised an eyebrow at him and Lance took a deep breath “I hit my hand, mullet! Don’t give me that look!” 

“How did you hit your hand?” He looked at the door and at Lance. 

“It’s hard to hold the door and hit it! I miss sometimes.”

“Give me that.” Keith plucked the hammer and grabbed the unbent top of the locker, then began to hammer the center that was kicked in. It was fairly straight when he decided to stop and look to Lance 

“You were probably holding it wrong.”

“Well sorry we can’t all be perfect and have a great ass too!” Lance huffed, taking the hammer and finishing up the job. 

Keith smirked at him, then the words caught up with him. He was going to say something, but Lance seemed frustrated, so he figured that it was something he hadn’t meant to say. Instead he waved goodbye and got his stuff, hung up his apron and went home for the day.

 

~~~

 

The next day he woke up and got ready, lounging around on the couch for most of the morning while he waited for Shiro to call. Him, Lance, and Pidge were all going to carpool in Shiro’s car. However when Shiro did call he didn’t expect him to have such a tight, clipped tone when he answered “We’re here. Come downstairs.”

“On my way. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Shiro said, then the sound of a car door and some rustling came through. Keith was locking his door when he got an answer “It’s Lance, we can’t talk about it. So don’t comment on it when you come down.”

Keith frowned then gave a small laugh, smirking as he made his way downstairs to meet Shiro and the others. “What? Did he pull some stupid practical joke to make you mad?” 

“No.”

“What did he do?”

“He didn’t do anythin- Oh hey, I see you.” Shiro’s tone changed slightly. Keith looked around and saw that Lance had gotten out to try and talk Pidge out of shotgun. Shiro waved at him and he jogged over. “Hey, ready to go?” Keith raised an eyebrow at the tight smile before nodding and climbing in the back. Lance gave up fighting with Pidge and went to sit in the back by Keith.

Oh. That was why.

Keith saw Lance had quite a few bruises, and one black eye. He was about to ask and Shiro stopped him by saying “Seatbelts.”

Suddenly he remembered what Shiro said and decided to keep his mouth shut, buckling his seatbelt. “All set.” They pulled out onto the road and started towards the beach. Keith grabbed the first thing he thought of when the silence got too tense. “So is there a reason Pidge is shotgun, or…?”

“Pidge got shotgun because they’re Shiro’s favorite and everyone knows it!” Lance pouted.

“Did not! I called shotgun.” Pidge turned around, sticking their tongue out at him.

“They did.” Shiro nodded.

“I was the first one you picked up!” Lance threw his hands up.

“They…. called shotgun yesterday…” Shiro said, though it wasn’t very convincing.

Keith smirked “Oh okay, so you are playing favorites.” 

Lance grinned “See! Keith knows the truth!”

“Don’t be jealous Lancey Lance.” Pidge teased.

Shiro let out a sigh and Keith glared at the back of his head “Shiro don’t-”

“Don’t make me turn this car around.” Shiro laughed as they all groaned. 

 

~~~

 

They met the others at the beach. Hunk had brought Shay with him, and Allura arrived with Coran who Keith was promptly introduced to. They set up listening to tales from his journeys while on vacation, and Keith was fairly certain they were exaggerated more than just a little. 

As soon as their spot was claimed, Lance got his surfboard from the top of Shiro’s car and brought it over, ditching his shirt and then running out to the ocean with a yell. Keith watched him run and jumped only slightly when Coran put his hand on his shoulder. “Is it just me or does Lance seem a bit down to you?”

“Uh… he seems to be having fun now…” Keith replied, frowning slightly to where Lance was now paddling out to sea, unsure what Coran was getting at. 

Coran patted his arm “Y’know, while I was travelling I stopped by Japan. The potters there like just a little bit of imperfection in their work, because it means more. There was a process called Kintsugi, they took broken pottery and fixed it with gold, or silver, or sometimes platinum… they took something broken and thought to be worthless, then made it into the most precious and gorgeous piece worth even more than before.” 

Keith looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, unsure of the subject change. “That sounds… interesting.”

Coran smiled at him, twisting one end of his mustache “Quite a way to think about things as well, loving something even though it’s broken, and taking that love to make it even better than before. Don’t you think?”

Keith squinted at him “Yeah… it’s nice.”

“A wonderful thing for someone to do isn’t it? Oh! Hunk brought food!” with that Coran walked away, leaving Keith’s head spinning as he tried to figure out what he meant.   
Pidge walked up next to him, wearing a large floppy hat to block the sun. “I see you had a little pow wow with Coran. Did he say anything interesting?”

“Uh… he told me about kintsugi? And he asked about Lance… It was kinda… cryptic.” Keith frowned, looking down to their arms and the large book they were holding. 

“Huh, funny he’d mention both those things in one conversation.” Pidge said, looking to where Shiro and Allura were setting up an easy up. “Did you figure out what he meant?” they looked up at him, watching for a reaction.

Keith frowned “Not really. Do you know?”

Pidge rolled her eyes and shook her head “Hopeless.” they walked away to go set up a chair in the shade.

Keith sighed and went to go help Shiro carry firewood and sawdust to the bonfire pit.

 

~~

 

After everything was set up completely everyone gathered under the easy up, their pottery in their laps as they passed around random tidbits that they sprinkled on their pots and wrapped in tinfoil. Lance had brought back up some dried seaweed and those were wrapped up as well. Keith found himself watching what Lance was doing intensely. “Easy there mullet-head. You’ll set my pot on fire before it’s even in the pit if you keep staring at it like that.” he joked.

“Why are you covering it in that stuff?”

“It’s part of a saggar firing, or pit firing. Different chemicals and substances create different colors or shapes. We put this stuff on here, then wrap it tightly in tin foil. Then this all goes in the pit, we build a big bonfire on top and let it burn out. Then we unwrap them when they’re cool enough and bam! Awesome pottery!” Lance grinned as Keith leaned closer to touch the surface of the pot that didn’t have anything on it. 

“So that’s why you make it smooth…” Keith muttered quietly.

“That’s called burnishing, you do that before it’s made into bisque. it just gives a better look and finish.” 

Keith pulled his hand away “Huh. That’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah… Hey after we light the pit do you want to come swim with me?” Lance asked, looking excited.

“I uh… I’m not much of a swimmer…”

“What!? The ocean is the best though!” Lance made a face “Wait can you even swim!?”

“I can swim! I just don’t care for it.”

“I bet you can’t swim and you’re just scared of looking dumb in front of me.” Lance challenged.

Pretty much. “No, I swim just fine.” 

“Prove it then.”

“Fine.” Keith was cringing internally at what his pride just got him into.

“Good!”

“You’re both very pretty, now are you done yet Lance?” Pidge interrupted, pointing to the wrapped up pottery Lance was holding. 

“Yeah.” He handed his piece to Pidge and stood, Keith following them to the pit and helping build a bonfire with the pottery in the center. They lit the fire and stayed to watch it go up in flames. Keith was staring into the flames, starting to ponder Coran’s conversation again when Lance pulled on his arm. “Come on, pretty boy! Let's go swim.”

Keith blushed at the compliment but let himself get dragged down to the water. Lance was waiting and staring at him, it took a second but Keith realized that he should take his shirt off and so he did, throwing it on a spot safe from the water. Lance then pulled him into the freezing cold water. “Gah! Why!?” Keith tried to get out but Lance put an arm around his waist and tucked his back to his chest then started pulling him into deeper water.

“Oh no you don’t!” Lance laughed as Keith splashed while trying to get away. Soon they were in chest deep water and Keith was shivering. “Hold your breath!” Lance said in his ear, Keith barely had time to take a deep breath in before Lance had pulled them under. When they surfaced Lance let go of Keith. Keith turned around and glared at Lance, before swimming closer and clinging to him, wrapping his legs around his waist. “What are you doing?” Lance asked, though he seemed nervous, he still put his arms around Keith’s back as he tried to hold them steady through the waves that were trying to knock him over. 

“Some asshole dunked me in the ocean’s freezing water and now I’m c-cold.” Keith shivered, clinging like a wet cat “I’m stealing your warmth.”

“I could think of a few ways to warm you up.” Lance turned so Keith could see him wink.

Keith let go and pushed away again rolling his eyes, though he was blushing again “You-” A wave hit them and caught Keith off guard. When he resurfaced he was a little further than before from the shore, and Lance hadn’t moved at all. He was laughing at Keith, but then sobered up only a little as Keith was trying but failing to swim back in a weak attempt at a doggy paddle. 

Lance started to move towards him, ducking under waves and then putting his arm around his waist again. He resurfaced and grinned, triumphant “You really are bad at swimming!” 

Keith glared at him again “I said I knew how, I never said I was any good at it!”

“Admit I’m better than you and I’ll help you get back to shallow water.” Lance smirked.

“What?”

“You heard me.” Lance teased as he started swimming them a little further out. 

Keith clung to him when they got deeper. “Okay, you win!”

“I didn’t hear any proclamations of how awesome I am~”

Keith could swear the water was getting darker under them “Ugh, you’re the best or whatever!”

Lance thought about it and shook his head “Not very convincing.” Slowly they sunk a bit into the water as it got even deeper.

Panic was starting to set in and Keith tended to lose his filter when he lost his cool. The water was definitely darker here and they could get pulled out even further. Taking a deep breath and grabbing the sides of Lance’s face he started to ramble, voice gradually getting louder and more panicked. “Okay, fine. You’re amazing and awesome, you’re an amazing potter. You’re surprisingly sweet and adorable, even though you’re a jerk and pull shit like this and I hate it you always make up for it. You’re drop dead gorgeous, even with these bruises and it makes me want to murder whoever did this, because you are absolutely perfect and in no way deserve any pain. You are beautiful even when you’re trying to kill me in this watery death trap called the ocean that you’re so great at swimming in! Are you happy now!?”

Lance stared wide-eyed at him, he seemed dumbfounded. Keith splashed him, his grip moving to Lance’s shoulders as he held on like letting go would kill him instantly. Lance shook his head and smiled, blushing lightly, he started swimming him back “You become a kiss up when you’re scared, Keith.”

“I’m not scared-” Lance let go of him and Keith wrapped around him like an octopus “Okay okay I’m a little scared, don’t let go. I’ve hardly ever been to the beach. Lance! Take me back to where my feet can touch the ground, you asshole!”

Lance laughed, but held onto him until they were back to shallow water. Keith still didn’t let go, though he did settle for holding onto Lance’s arm that was on his waist. “Sorry, but you’re really cute when you look like a drowning cat.” 

Keith made an annoyed noise at him and once the water was back at their thighs he let go of Lance and went straight back to shore. Lance followed, looking amused, on the way back up he bumped Keith lightly “Hey, you know I wouldn’t ever let you drown, right?” he asked seriously. 

Keith glanced at him “I don’t know, you can be pretty cruel.” he smirked.

Lance blinked “What? Me? Cruel?”

“Calling me a kiss up when I admit how awesome I think you are is pretty cruel I think.” Keith replied, before walking ahead to go get his towel and dry off by Pidge. 

Lance stared after him for a little bit before he shook his head and walked over to where Allura was sunbathing. He sat next to her with a sigh and stared out at the ocean. He pulled up his knees to drape his arms over them, resting his face on his hands. “Something the matter, Lance?” Allura asked.

Hunk walked over, giving Lance a water bottle with a smile. “Thanks buddy.” He frowned and sighed again “Do you think that Keith….” he stopped, unsure about the question now.

“What about Keith?” Hunk asked, curious. 

“Is he what’s bothering you?” Allura frowned, pulling her glasses down to look at him.

“No! No… Well… kinda? I just… Is he really…. do you see him as, like, a secretly lovey dovey person?” Lance frowned. “Like would he just be really sweet to anyone?”

Hunk and Allura shared a look Lance didn’t see. “I think Keith is a really nice guy, but not lovey dovey.” Hunk smiled.

“What would make you think he is?”

“I just… he said some things… while we were swimming.” Lance shook his head. “It makes me think maybe he might possibly like-.... nah nevermind. It’s silly.”

Allura grinned, reaching over and poking him repeatedly “Do you like him, Lance?” she teased.

Lance turned bright red “What? What would give you that totally accurate idea?” he smirked back as she grinned and did a victory dance.

“I think he’s a good choice for you, buddy.” Hunk pat him on the back “I say go for it.”

“But what if he doesn’t like me back? What if he has someone else?”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that one.” Allura smiled, putting her glasses back on and laying down again. “I agree with Hunk.”

“Ugh… I can’t just-...” Lance tugged on his hair “You two are no help. Where’s Shiro?” he stood and looked around. Hunk shook his head and gave an exasperated sigh once Lance left.

Keith was sitting between Pidge and Shiro, sipping on a juice box. He noticed Lance heading straight for them, then making an abrupt turn when he saw Keith, heading towards Coran instead. “Hmm, wonder what that was about.” Shiro said, then went back to watching seagulls.

“I think he’s avoiding me now.” Keith said, frowning.

“Why would he avoid you? He never shuts up about you.” Pidge asked, setting down their book and raising an eyebrow at him.

“I maybe thought I was gonna drown… so I panicked, and he said he’s swim me back if I told him he was awesome and made it convincing so I sorta….”

“You told him how you feel.” Shiro supplied. “Good.”

“Well obviously not good, and I didn’t say everything… It’s a little hazy because I was worried about drowning but-”

“You two are idiots. At least you finally said something.” Pidge scoffed. “He’s probably just embarrassed, or thinks that you didn’t mean it. He’ll be fine in like an hour maybe less.” They started to read again.

Keith blinked at them, then looked to Shiro who simply shrugged “I was going to say something similar.”

“You two are no help.” Keith grumbled.

Soon the sun was setting and the bonfire was finally dead. They used some tongs and pulled out the pots, setting them on the sand. They took turns bringing buckets of water up from the ocean to pour on them until they were cool enough to touch. When they were unwrapped everyone was admiring all the pieces, figuring out what created what effects. Keith was in awe of every finished piece, and was very happy that Lance was no longer avoiding him. He held his pottery out to him “See, Keith? Isn’t it awesome?” Lance boasted, nodding to let Keith know he could hold it.

“This is really great, Lance.” Keith smiled. 

Lance took the pot back and set it in a box. Shiro was already lighting a new bonfire, without pottery in it since it was finally dark. Keith was helping and then staring at their fire baby and before he knew it his wrist was grabbed and he was being tugged away, towards the water. “C’mon. I have an idea.” Lance said, looking back at Keith over his shoulder, surfboard under his free arm.

Keith turned to walk easier and seemed nervous “I don’t know if I’ll like this idea.”

“You will. I promise.”

That’s how Keith found himself in deep water on top of a surfboard with Lance paddling the board along in front of him. “See? Not so bad, right?” Lance said, grinning back at him. The waves had died down, and the moonlight made it bright, reflecting off the water to make it look like it was being held together like silver. It reminded Keith of the kintsugi Coran had described. 

“I guess so.” Keith admitted “as long as we don’t fall off.”

“I won’t let you drown, Keith.” he smiled, carefully turning around to face him “I like you too much to sacrifice you to the sharks. Even if they’re my favorite animal.”

“You like sharks?”

“They’re just confused and misunderstood!” Lance huffed. “What’s your favorite animal?”

“I don’t-...” Keith looked into Lance’s eyes and frowned in defeat “I guess if I have to pick… I’ve always liked hippos.”

“Hippos? And you questioned my love of sharks…” Lance tsked.

Keith crossed his arms “I never said it was bad.”

“Then what is it?” Lance challenged, leaning forwards.

Keith’s mind couldn’t process a quip fast enough “I think it’s cute. What’s wrong with hippos, hmm?”

Lance blinked, and looked to the water, “Nothing, they’re pretty cool….”

Keith shook his head and looked out to where the water blended into the stars “It’s pretty out here… when you’re not drowning.”

“You were never drowning.” Lance laughed, staring at Keith now that he wouldn’t get caught. “Anyway… I can think of a few things that are prettier.”

Keith frowned “Like what?”

“Hmmm like…. Veradera beach, your eyes, Hunk’s cooking, you, the northern lights, space…. do I need to go on?” Lance smirked.

“Uh…” Keiths brow was furrowed, he wasn’t sure he heard him right. “Did you just..?”

“Hmm?”

“Nevermind.” Keith sighed.

“Can you think of anywhere you’d rather be right now?” Lance asked, deflating a bit.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, actually.”

“In the whole world?”

“I’d choose here.”

“The universe? Even made up places? Nowhere?” Lance didn’t seem convinced.

“Hmmm…. nope. I’d choose here with you.” Keith gave him a small smile.

Lance felt his confidence return a little. “Oh… why?”

“I don’t really know.” Keith shrugged, then got a serious look on his face “Lance… I… can I ask something? It’s been bothering me, but if you don’t want to answer I understand.”

“Um… Sure. Shoot.” He seemed a little thrown off by the abrupt change, but went with it anyway.

“What happened to give you these bruises?” Keith asked, cautiously reaching forwards to rest his fingertips next to Lance’s black eye. 

Lance closed his eyes and sighed, smile disappearing. “It was Lotor. He found my apartment… uh… I confronted him and this happened.” When he opened his eyes he saw Keith was furious, anger glinting in his eyes.

“Why didn’t you call for help?” 

“I didn’t want to bother anyone. It’s not anyone else’s problem, anyway. I’ll find a new apartment soon, and it’ll be fine.” 

“Lance…” Keith sighed, sounding annoyed, but after a few minutes he looked back at Lance “I want you to move in with me.”

“What?” Lance was taken aback. “Jeez, Keith, buy me dinner first.” he winked, laughing.

“This isn’t a joke Lance.” Keith leaned forwards, looking serious again. “I don’t want you to get hurt anymore, none of us do. Lotor doesn’t even know who I am, you’ll be safe there, and you won’t have to spend another night where it’s not safe.” 

Lance shook his head. “I can’t do that to you, Keith. Do you live with other people? What about them? Even then Lotor will probably find me there eventually.”

“I live alone, and could use help with the rent anyway. If that asshole comes looking for you I will make him regret it, I promise.” Keith grabbed Lance’s hands and squeezed “Please, Lance, this shit has to end.”

“I-....” Lance frowned and looked at Keith “I’m a pain in the ass?” he tried.

“I’m well aware, and I still would rather have you move in with me.” Keith rolled his eyes but was wearing a fond smile.

“...Fine. I’ll move in with you.” Lance said, tearing up a little. 

“Thank you.” Keith smiled. 

“That’s my line, mullet.”


	11. Burnishing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of fluff in this one. A bit of Keith angst, but mostly fluff! 
> 
> Sorry for the late update I moved to Arizona from California so I've been really busy. Anywho, thank you again so much for reading, I love seeing your comments and kudos! They give me life!

“How many things do you have?” Keith grumbled, setting down two more of Lance’s boxes in his new, already crowded room.

“Oh please, it always looks like more when it’s in a bunch of small boxes.” Lance rolled his eyes, leading the way back down to pick up the last few boxes.

“Sure it does.” Keith smirked, still a bit bewildered at how Lance had fit so much stuff in his car. Lance’s old roommate had helped move Lance’s furniture over with his truck earlier in the day, so now all they had to do was get Lance settled in. Keith found himself thinking that his worries about having Lance as a roommate had died down a little, they seemed to be getting along better than he had expected even if Keith kept giving Lance an attitude about how much stuff he had.

Keith set down the last of Lance’s things and stretched, “I’ll let you get settled in I guess, let me know if you need any help unpacking.” He turned to leave.

“Wait, I want to move my bed to that wall.” Lance said, already moving boxes out of the way.

“We moved it twice already!”

“But the way the light is shining will bug me and now that everything is in here I think it will be best if it’s over on that wall.” Lance said, holding his hands up in a frame as he closed one eye while looking around the room. 

Lance’s tongue was poking out just a little as he visualized everything then rested the frame on Keith before dropping it and giving him puppy dog eyes. Keith gave in, “Fine! But this is the last time, Lance.” With that he walked over and moved the bed himself. He looked up at Lance with a slightly annoyed expression. “There, happy?” Lance was simply staring at him with wide eyes, “What?”

“I didn’t know you were so strong is all.” he replied as he walked over, squeezing Keith’s arm appreciatively. “Damn, Mullet, you could probably bench press me.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, “I could try.”

That seemed to be what Lance wanted to hear, since he looked at him excitedly, “Really!? Do it!”

“What?”

“Bench press me!”

“I don’t-”

“Don’t tell me you’re really all talk, mullet.”

“I am not-”

“Then why won’t you do it?”

“I will! Come here.” Keith rose to the bait, he lay down on the floor and put his arms up, bent slightly. “Try to keep your body flat.”

Lance grinned and carefully balanced himself in Keith’s hands, and realized very quickly this was a bit awkward mostly due to where Keith’s hands were resting. He was distracted from his embarrassment when Keith started lifting and lowering him smoothly and easily. Lance started laughing, “Ha! This is awesome!” 

“Stop… laughing…” Keith grunted slightly, but this made Lance giddy, causing him to shake with laughter. “Lance!-” Keith’s hand slipped and Lance fell on him, knocking the air out of his lungs.

“Ha, oh man! Keith! I’m sorry!” Lance was trying his best not to laugh as he moved off of Keith then pulled him up a little, reaching behind him to rub his back. “Breathe buddy.” Keith started to get air back in his lungs, glancing up from the ground to see Lance’s face was very close to his. That didn’t help the breathing issue very much. “Keith, you alright?” He asked, his laughter was gone now.

Keith took a deep, shuddering breath, “Yeah.” He coughed a little. 

Lance smiled and seemed to realize the proximity as well, he lingered a few more seconds before pulling back and standing up. He held his hand out to Keith. “That was so cool!”

“Glad you enjoyed it.” Keith took his hand and let himself be helped up. “Because I’m not doing it again.”

“Whaaaa? Why not!?” Lance pouted.

“I don’t care to have the wind knocked out of me because someone can’t hold still.” He grumbled, shuffling to the door and rubbing at his chest.

Lance snickered, “It won’t happen next time, I’m sorry.” 

“Yeah, yeah whatever. I’ll be in the living room if you need anything. Try not to need anything.”

“Keeeeeeiiiiith, don’t be like that! I’m sorry!” Lance called after him, but let him go rest anyway.

 

~~~

 

“Lance, what do you want for dinner-Gah!” Keith jumped when the door to the bathroom opened and Lance was standing there with green sludge on his face. “What happened to your face?!”

Lance glared at him, “We’ve been living together for a week, Mullet. It’s my nightly face mask.”

“I guess it’s an improvement.” Keith smirked, backing up a little when Lance swatted at him playfully. He laughed, “I’m making dinner, what do you want?”

“By making dinner do you mean ordering in? I don’t think the kitchen can handle you actually cooking.” Lance grinned at Keith’s indignant look. 

“I cook perfectly fine,” he crossed his arms, glaring.

“Ramen, hot dogs, sandwiches, and cereal is hardly cooking.” 

Keith pouted, “Screw you, Lance.” He turned to walk away.

“So I’m guessing you’re ordering pizza?” Lance laughed when Keith flipped him off. “Pizza it is then.” He snickered and went back to finish up his nightly routine, deciding he’d make Keith some real food for once and show him what real cooking looked like. 

They had been getting along surprisingly well, Keith was rather relieved that Lance was pretty much the perfect roommate for the most part. Lance however did like to try to get Keith to ‘take care of himself’. Which Keith acted like he hated, but a small part of him enjoyed the extra attention Lance gave him.

This was how he ended up on the couch with Lance after dinner, with colorful mud getting put on his face. Keith frowned, “It’s cold…” 

“Oh wow really? I didn’t notice, I thought it was burning hot.” Lance scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Don’t be a baby, it’s only got to stay on for about fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen minutes? That’s such a long time...” Keith sighed, “You do this every day?”

“No, mud masks are only every once in awhile.” Lance smiled softly. “Not all of us are blessed with a nice complexion from birth like you.” 

Keith peeked open one eye at him, “But you always look perfect to me.”

“This flawlessness takes some work, Keith.” Lance huffed, but he was blushing lightly. “Now close your eyes and stop talking.”

“Mmmm….” Keith didn’t care for being this vulnerable usually, but around Lance it was different. He felt relaxed enough to trust him. 

“It’s not to, uh, be mean or anything, but the mask will crinkle if you move your face too much,” Lance explained, with his eyes closed Keith could focus on the sensation of Lance’s fingers on his face and focus on his voice. “It has to dry and harden, and if it’s crinkled it’ll flake off and that’s no good.” He rambled on. Soon his hands were no longer touching Keith’s face, “Okay, you can open your eyes, but don’t move your face.” 

Keith blinked open his eyes as Lance admired his work, gorgeous blue eyes tracing over him, making sure the coating was even before setting a timer on his phone and turning back to Keith. “Okay, now we just wait. I’m so glad I talked you into this, your skin is going to thank me. Honestly I didn’t think you would ever even considering letting me help you with this…” And he kept on rambling, though Keith found himself thinking it was more endearing than annoying. Seeing Lance talk animatedly about one of his favorite things to do and about how Keith was making him happy by participating did something to him that made it hard to say no to Lance. He wanted to make Lance this happy whenever he could. 

Keith stopped those thoughts immediately, getting attached to someone was something he definitely didn’t want. Nope, getting attached to someone who was bound to leave was not happening. Keith decided that he had to try not to give in to Lance’s ideas and bonding time. 

“Hey can we watch a movie together?” Lance suggested suddenly. “We can watch a short one since we have work tomorrow. It’ll be fun, please?”

Keith was preparing to say no, then he looked at him and his hopeful eyes, and he nodded. He was cursing himself internally as his heart jumped at how happy Lance looked when he jumped up to pick out something to watch. 

Lance ended up picking a movie right when the timer went off. He helped Keith to the bathroom and showed him how to wash off his face. “There we go, doesn’t it feel better? It looks softer.” 

Keith looked at his reflection and reached up to touch his face, Lance was right. But he was not about to admit that to him, no way. “It’s the same.” He lied.

“What?” Lance squawked. “It is not!” He rolled his eyes, “Whatever, mullet, you probably don’t look at your reflection enough to know if there even was a difference.” 

“Whatever you want to tell yourself, Lance.” Keith smiled at the way Lance was pouting as they walked back out to the living room. 

They ended up watching Howl’s Moving Castle, a movie Lance had brought with him, and Keith had never seen. Halfway through Lance started laughing about something that Keith was fairly certain wasn’t meant to be that funny. “I don’t get it. Why is that so funny?” He watched as Lance’s laughter died down.

“My siblings and I we....,” he laughed again at the memory. “We… for months whenever Mama told us to do something we didn’t like… Heh we would shout ‘May all your bacon burn!’ and she would get so mad, telling us how awful it was to wish someone burned bacon. It was so much fun.”

“Siblings? Do you have a big family?” Keith asked, and watched fondly as Lance excitedly started to tell him all about his family. The movie was quickly forgotten as Lance explained who everyone was, what they were doing now, and where they were. Keith found himself wanting to know more and more about Lance’s large family, what it was like growing up, what it was like to live in one place for their whole life. 

The movie was well over by the time Lance noticed the time and stopped telling Keith about how they raised chickens and other farm animals. “Shit, we should get to bed…” he said, almost apologetically.

“Oh… right…” Keith was almost sad, this was probably the closest he had ever experienced to knowing what having a family was like. “Maybe you can tell me more tomorrow?” He asked as they got up to go to their rooms.

Lance grinned, “Of course!” He said, turning the television off as Keith made his way down the hall to his room. “Night, Keith!”

“Goodnight, Lance.” Keith called back before closing his door. He walked to his dresser and started to change into some sleeping pants. When he pulled them on he reached out to close the drawer when a glint of metal caught his eye. He pulled out the knife and unwrapped it a little to stare at the strange symbol. This knife was the only thing he had of his parents, no memories or anything else, just this weird knife. Suddenly he was overwhelmed by sadness and anger. He quietly cursed at himself for being such an idiot, he wrapped up the knife and put it back in the drawer, slamming it shut. He then went to his bed and shut off the light, trying to ignore the pang in his chest. 

It wasn’t enough, the tears welled up and spilled over and he found himself sitting up against his headboard, clutching a pillow as he tried to keep his crying as quiet as possible. The thoughts kept attacking him. He would never have what Lance had, he was a problemed orphan with no real family just a useless knife, and Keith wondered who could love someone whose parents didn’t even want. Keith felt his anger surge towards the parents he had never known, the ones who had just dropped him off on a doorstep. He felt utterly hopeless and broken, and stupid for wanting something he couldn’t have so badly. He felt a sob wrench itself from his lips, then there was no stopping the rest, he shoved the pillow into his face. 

Then there was a knock at his door. Keith held his breath as best he could. “Keith? Hey, buddy, you okay? I heard-” Keith heard the door open. 

“Lance… go to sleep it…. it’s fine.” Keith hoped he sounded stern, but he knew his voice was shaking too much for that. 

Lance didn’t say anything, and Keith thought he was gone, sniffling as he lifted his head. Then he felt the bed dip down, and his lamp switched on, bathing Lance’s concerned face in yellow light. “Doesn’t seem fine. Keith… what’s wrong?” Lance asked, moving closer and reaching out towards him.

Keith flinched away from the hand and wiped at his face. “Nothing… nothing…”

Lance sighed, “You leave me no choice then.” He said, then moved quickly while Keith was wondering what he meant. Keith found himself pulled up against Lance with arms wrapped around him. “I’m just going to have to not let go until you feel better.”

“Lance…” Keith struggled a little but couldn’t get a good enough angle to push away. “Stop… please..”

“Only when you’re alright, or if you tell me what’s wrong.” Lance said resolutely, like he had all night.

“I-” Keith shook his head and stopped struggling. “I was just… you… you have a family and… and I-... it’s stupid but…” He felt the tears start again and he wanted to run away. He felt Lance pull him closer when he started crying again. “I just…. I wish I knew what… what it was like… to have such a nice family….” He managed to finish even though the crying had his breath catching. 

He felt Lance start rubbing soothing circles as he cradled him, and for once he wasn’t completely opposed to being held. “Hey… Who says you won’t one day?” Lance said in a soothing voice, resting his head on top of Keith’s, “Plus you have your ceramics family too. It may not be the same, definitely less chickens and more cats…” Lance attempted a small fake laugh, then stopped when he saw it wasn’t helping. “You can’t change the past. I know that’s like the dumbest thing to say and I should shut up, because you must have heard it a billion times. You were an orphan, and maybe you never had a chance to live as part of a family like in the movies or whatever… but it wasn’t your fault, you couldn’t stop it.” He took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to make Keith feel better. “I wish I knew what to say to make all the hurt go away, Keith, I really do.” He just held him, wishing desperately for the right words.

Keith had calmed down a little bit, unconsciously he curled closer to Lance. “I won’t ever have a family…” He said quietly.

Lance lifted his head up and looked down at Keith, “Why would you say something like that?”

“No one will want these problems, on top of that I’m gay so the kid thing is a bit more complicated…. I don’t know, Lance, what if I screw up like whoever had me and I mess someone else up?” Keith said, not meeting his eyes.

“Keith… that’s a bunch of bullshit and you know it.” That made Keith look up, Lance was smiling down at him gently, “You’re absolutely amazing, even if you aren’t the most social butterfly. There’s always adoption if you want, and you know how much it hurts so I think you’d be a great father. You’re probably the best person I know to be a father. Well, I mean there’s Shiro… and maybe Coran... “ Lance blinked and frowned, “I’m not helping, am I?”

Keith gave him a small smile, “The talking doesn’t help, but you being here is nice.” He tensed when Lance shifted, then let himself relax when Lance tucked his head against him again.

“Then I’ll stop sticking my foot in my mouth. How’s that?” Lance asked warmly. Keith simply nodded, closing his tired eyes and just letting himself enjoy being held for once. Soon Lance switched off the light, and they both drifted to sleep.

 

~~~

 

Keith woke up with a slight headache to the smell of something delicious. He sat up and found a cup of water on his nightstand, drinking it before going to the bathroom to brush his teeth. There was a strange empty feeling in his chest, but he tried to shake it off, unsure why it was even there. He rinsed out the toothpaste and looked at his reflection, then it hit him. Lance. He had fallen asleep in Lance’s arms and he was gone when he woke up. “Fuck…” Keith mumbled, closing his eyes as he mentally scolded himself for feeling this way about not waking up next to his roommate. 

He took a deep breath to calm himself, and his stomach loudly reminded him that something delicious was in the air. Slowly he exited the bathroom and walked to the kitchen island. Lance was turned away, finishing up some pancakes. He glanced over his shoulder when Keith pulled out a chair, “G’mornin, Mullet.” He grinned, turning off the stove. He put the plate with pancakes next to the others on the island with different breakfast foods, “Feeling better?”

“Uh… yeah.” Keith said, looking at the food, “Have you been up awhile?”

“Not too long.” Lance shrugged, “I woke up, untangled myself from you, and then I didn’t feel like going back to sleep so I decided to actually use your stove for real cooking.” 

“I cook, Lance-” Keith frowned and then felt a flutter in his chest when he realized that Lance had actually stayed with him the whole night. 

“I mean real food,” Lance teased, ignorant of Keith’s inner turmoil as he leaned over the counter with a sly smile, “not snack foods any child can make. Honestly if you weren’t so hot I’d be worried about your survival.” 

Keith sighed and frowned, figuring Lance was just feeling flirty today, then he blinked, sniffing the air to be sure, “Do you smell something burning?”

“Just my burning desire for you.” Lance said, adding a wink and finger guns.

Keith rolled his eyes and then saw smoke, “Lance the toaster is on fire!”

“What?” Lance turned but Keith was already moving, hopping over a clear part of the counter and grabbing the small fire extinguisher he kept under the sink. “Holy crow!” Lance yelped, as Keith put out the small fire that had once been a toaster. 

Keith set the fire extinguisher down once the flames were out and he glared at Lance, “Seriously, Lance?!”

“Hey, I was just trying to make you breakfast! Not my fault you distracted me.” Lance huffed.

“It has settings, you literally can’t mess it up.” 

“Well, apparently you can.” Lance smiled, gesturing to the now somewhat melted toaster. 

“Lance…” Keith growled.

“Hey, it’s funny!” Lance stifled a laugh poorly. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry… I’ll buy you a new toaster.” 

“Ugh… fine…” Keith sighed, and then Lance handed him a plate and was making him sit down to eat together before they got ready for work.

 

~~~

 

When they finally got to work, Keith was still annoyed. They had carpooled and Lance spent the whole time trying to get Keith to stop giving him the silent treatment. Keith got out of the car without saying a word, locking it after Lance got out and then walked in ahead of him. Lance gave up, instead going to the store area and starting his opening duties while Keith headed for the locker room and the kilns.   
Unfortunately the universe didn’t want Keith to calm down today. Aside from some glazes that ran too much and stuck to shelves which he had to clean, apparently some glazes had been mixed together by customers so he had to remake them. When the afternoon rolled around he got to experience why Shiro was always so upset with Slav all the time. Apparently one of his pieces had shifted just a tiny bit more than he had calculated it would in the kiln, and this was somehow under Keith’s control so he had to listen for a good hour while the perfectionist went over every detail on how the piece was now a bad omen and what it said ‘about this reality’. What he meant by that, Keith will probably never know. 

After loading a few glaze kilns he went to unload and put away some bisque pieces, only to find that he had put one of Hunk’s pieces at the bottom of an electric kiln. While it was easy to set it inside, taking it out was at an awkward angle, and it ended up hurting his back when he pulled it out. Keith had almost dropped the pot, but grabbed onto it as his muscles spasmed and he stumbled backwards. “Oof…,” he grunted as he steadied himself against a wall, the pot’s momentum had hit him hard in the chest. “That’s a bruise…,” he muttered, getting it onto the cart he used to transport bisque finally. He rubbed his chest and back, stretching slightly and wincing. After resting for a moment he did his best to ignore the pain and push the cart inside. He unloaded the cart, and finally he was done for the day. He put his apron away and grabbed his stuff, then reluctantly walked out into the studio to find Lance. 

However, Lance wasn’t ready to leave, he was next to Pidge and Hunk on the wheel, telling some story to them as they worked. He glanced up at Keith, “Oh hey, Keef.”

“Keef?” Keith asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

“What, do you prefer ‘Mullet’?” Lance smiled, then frowned when Keith glared. “Aww come on, are you still mad about the toaster thing?”

“Mad? What happened?” Hunk asked, glancing up with a concerned frown.

“Yeah, what did you do this time, Lance?” Pidge asked with a sly look.

“Ugh… I was making him breakfast this morning and I kind of set the toaster on fire.” Lance admitted.

“Kind of?” Keith scoffed.

“How do you set a toaster on fire?” Hunk gasped, “I thought I taught you better!”

“Woah woah woah woah… you made him breakfast?” Pidge raised an eyebrow, Hunk’s eyes widened and he caught on.

“Yeah.” Lance said triumphantly.

“So you were at his house?” Hunk chimed in.

“Well obviously.” 

“Did you wake up to make breakfast?” Hunk tilted his head, sharing a look with Pidge.

“Well I woke up and then decided to.” Lance frowned, “Why?”

“So you slept at Keith’s?” Pidge smirked.

“Where else would I have slept?” Lance blinked, “I mean I live with him now so…”

“You what?!” Hunk and Pidge shouted.

“I thought I told you guys…” Lance shrugged.

“You said you were moving, not who you were moving in with.” Hunk shook his head. “Either way, congratulations you guys. Finally, right?”

Keith and Lance stared at him, looking confused. “Yeah, it’s about time.” Pidge nodded, pushing up their glasses with their arm. “You two have been dancing around each other for weeks, Hunk and I were starting to go insane.” 

“What?” Keith and Lance asked, staring at Pidge now. 

“O-oh no… Pidge, I don’t think it’s what we think it is.” Hunk frowned.

“What are you two talking about?” Lance asked suspiciously.

Pidge looked at the two of them then threw their hands up, “Urgh, seriously!? You two are so clueless!”

“Hey guys, what’s going on?” Shiro asked, walking in to sit at a wheel, Allura close behind him and going to a nearby table with her tools. 

“Keith and Lance are living together.” Hunk supplied.

“Really?” Shiro blinked then smiled at Keith and Lance, “I’m happy for you two, but that’s kind of a big step for a new relationship don’t you think?” 

“Relationship?” They asked, glancing at eachother then looking away with faint blushes. 

“Yeah I mean, you two have been clearly into each-” Shiro stopped and his eyes widened, “Oh! Nevermind, nothing.”

Allura blinked, “So you two aren’t finally dating?”

“What’s with all this finally stuff?” Keith glared, crossing his arms, “The hell is going on? Lance and I are roommates, nothing else. What are you going on about?”

Lance frowned, “Y-yeah, you’re all making no sense.” 

Pidge glared at them, “Well to put it plainly; you two are too stupid to tell that you both li-” Pidge was muffled by Shiro’s hand.

“It’s nothing, really. I wish you the best of luck! Right, Pidge?” He asked pointedly. Pidge glared at him but then nodded, so Shiro let them go. Keith gave the both of them a glare, while Lance seemed to be a little flustered still.

Hunk smiled, “Yeah, I’m happy you two are getting along. Er… toaster incident aside.”

“Toaster incident?” Allura asked.

“Yeah, about that, Lance.” Keith glared at his roommate.

“I’m sorry! We’ll go the the store and I’ll buy a new one on the way home, okay?” Lance said, giving Keith puppy dog eyes.

“...Fine…” Keith sighed, “We need to get groceries too.” He winced and rubbed his back, “And some pain medicine.”

“Are you alright, Keith?” Allura asked, looking concerned.

“Yeah, I think I just pulled something while I was unloading the kilns. I’m fine.” Keith shrugged. “I’m going to go lay down on the nap couch for a bit. Let me know when you’re ready, Lance.” With that he walked away.

Lance frowned in concern, “Okay I’ll only be a bit.”

Pidge scoffed, “You’re like an old married couple already.”

“What?” Lance squeaked, “It’s not like that, Pidge.”

“I dunno, man.” Hunk smiled, nudging him with his elbow, “Seems pretty accurate.”

“It’s not that impossible either.” Shiro chimed in.

“Stop being cryptic, dad.” Lance huffed. “I get what you’re hinting at.” Shiro simply shrugged. 

“They are right though, Lance.” Allura smiled, going to get her new sculpture. “You and Keith would make a wonderful couple.” She winked and then disappeared into the damp room. Lance sighed and went back to his work, too busy considering their words to talk.


	12. Crazing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s pretty, isn’t it?”
> 
> “Um, yeah… beautiful.” He replied, blushing lightly as he slowly put his arm around Lance, watching him for any sign to pull away. 
> 
> He didn’t get one, instead Lance rested his head on his shoulder with a hum, much like the other couples cuddling. “Keith?”
> 
> “Yeah?”
> 
> “I’ve been thinking…” Lance paused, biting his lip and looking up at him, meeting his eyes, “I really-”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crazing happens when the clay shrinks faster than the glaze in the firing process. Tension causes cracks in the glaze, usually a "ping" noise is heard.
> 
> Lots of fluff in this one again. Also... I took French, not Spanish, my beta reader also doesn't speak it. Instead of attempting Spanish and getting it wrong, I worked around it. I also can't, for the life of me, figure out those little accents on letters??? help??? Anywho...
> 
> Thank you again for reading, and all your comments :D 
> 
> I was told it'd be cool to put my Tumblr on here, so uh: https://lilmsflash.tumblr.com/ here's one of my blogs. The other is the same name as my name on here. Feel free to send me a message or any questions!

Lance was finally finished with what he could get done for the day. He had cleaned up and went to get Keith, but when he got there he found Keith sleeping peacefully. Smiling he went to his locker to get his things as quietly as he could. He had decided that maybe the others were right after all, that he should maybe give it a shot and see if Keith liked him back. 

He sat down on the couch and looked at how peaceful Keith looked in his sleep. Lance realized he didn’t want to mess anything up, so he should maybe take it a little slow, test the waters. 

And he had a few ideas on how to do that, but he needed Keith awake for them. 

He leaned forwards a little and gently shook Keith. When the kiln tech blinked open his eyes Lance brushed some hair away from his face. “Morning, sunshine.”

Keith stared for a second, and then Lance saw the moment he mentally returned to the land of the living. Keith’s eyes widened a second before he sat up and scooted away from Lance, his cheeks dusted with pink. “What? Wh-...” He blinked and ran a hand over his face, groaning.

“You fell asleep.” Lance grinned, standing up. 

“I figured…” Keith gave him a half-hearted glower, “Are you ready to go yet?”

“Just waiting on you, sleeping beauty.” Lance winked, turning and heading towards the door. “Lets go get you a toaster and get home.”

Keith rolled off the couch and followed him out, waving goodbye to the others, though they were wrapped up in their projects. Hunk had a tall vase going, with a skinny neck that seemed a lot like Lance’s things but on a larger scale. Pidge was now putting finishing touches on a tea set that they had thrown the other day while they waited for their newer pieces to dry. Allura was carving intricate details to some wings made of porcelain she had added to her sculpture, her tongue poked out and brow furrowed in concentration. Shiro’s was most impressive, he was finishing up shaping a large globe on his wheel. Judging by the size and the way he kept glancing at Allura’s project he figured it was their collaboration piece. Barely any of them did more than wave or say a quick goodbye, except for Pidge who paused and wiggled her eyebrows at Lance. 

Lance rolled his eyes as they kept going out to the car. Keith unlocked it and soon they were on their way to the grocery store. “Do grocery stores even sell toasters?” Lance asked as they parked. 

“Oh… I never thought of that…” Keith grumbled, then sighed, “I’m too tired to go anywhere else tonight, I hope they do.”

“If not maybe we can go to the mall. I know there’s a few shops there with kitchen appliances.” Lance smiled, “We can go there tomorrow or something if there aren’t any here. Besides, our apartment is so boring! It could stand some decorations.”

Keith sighed as he grabbed a cart, “You can pick out the decorations, I don’t really care.” 

“Obviously.” Lance scoffed, “You don’t have anything decorated anywhere in the place.” 

“I like practical things.” 

“Well just practical things isn’t very homey, so I’m decorating and you’re helping because you live there too so I’ll need your input.”

“Alright, alright.” Keith said, not really seeing the point of making things ‘homey’, or really understanding how to do it for that matter. “We can go to the mall tomorrow, sound good?”

“It’s a date.” Lance all but purred with a wink before leading Keith away from all the packaged junk food and towards the produce section.

 

~~~

 

Keith had helped put the groceries away then immediately went to pop some pain pills and lay down because his back hurt still. This gave Lance another idea, but he had something else planned first. He sat down in the living room and powered up skype on his laptop. His mother answered and he updated her on how he was doing, and that he had moved, leaving out the part about Lotor of course so she wouldn’t worry. A few of his younger siblings and nephews and nieces gathered around too and he asked them to stay there so they could meet his roommate. Though not before explaining to everyone that he had never had a family, which made them even more eager to meet him.

His plan was going perfect.

“Keith!” Lance called, “Can you come out here a minute!?” 

“What is it!?” Keith called, sounding grumpy.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t all going to plan. “Just come out here! Now!”

“If you set something else on fire!” Keith warned, coming down the hallway and stopping short when he turned the corner and was met with a large family smiling warmly at him from a screen, waving and saying hello in English and another language he was pretty sure was Spanish. “Oh um… Hi?” He blinked, suddenly looking like he was ready to bolt back down the hall and hide in his room.

Everyone looked excited to meet him and Lance’s mother was staying something to Lance in Spanish. Lance laughed and replied, setting the laptop on the coffee table and then grabbing Keith’s wrist, dragging him to sit next to him on the couch. “Keith, this is my family. Well… part of it.” Lance grinned, hoping Keith was enjoying this because he couldn’t read his expression very well. “This is my Mama, and there’s my littlest sister, Mirana, she’s seven.” A little girl towards the front waved then lifted a smaller child and introduced him as Leo. Then she took over completely and started introducing everyone, Lance filling in their ages and relation to him. When she was done his mother said something to Lance. 

“Oh, okay.” He smiled and looked at Keith, “She wanted me to tell you that you’re very handsome.” She said something else, “And that she appro- Mama!” Lance’s head whipped back to the screen, and he was talking rapidly. 

Keith couldn’t help but stare at him and at the family on the screen, a slight blush forming. “Um, tell her I said thank you? Gracias?” He was trying, and Lance thought that it was a good sign.  
“She can understand some English, but prefers to speak Spanish.” He smiled when Keith thanked her directly. She seemed pleased and nodded, having Lance translate for her. Lance grinned, looking ecstatic, “She says welcome to the family, Keith. You’re part of the McClain family now.”

“W-what?” Keith asked, eyes wide. He stared at Lance, “Me? Why? What did I do?”

Lance and his mother laughed, as well as some of the children who weren’t forming a small chanting circle repeating ‘Tio Keef’ happily. His mother said something else and Lance nodded before translating, “She says she can tell you’re a good young man. You’re taking care of me too, so she is adopting you.” She said something else and Lance kept translating, “She said it’s nice to have a handsome boy for a son… Hey!” Lance glared at the screen where his mother was snickering.

“You already have a handsome boy, Mrs. McClain.” Keith replied almost automatically, then shrunk into the couch when he realized what came out of his mouth, hands coming up to cover his face. 

Lance grinned, giving Keith a wink. “See? He agrees.” There was a deep voice coming from the other end and a man with eyes and hair the same color as Lance’s stepped into frame, crouching and waving. “Hey Dad!” Lance greeted happily, hitting Keith on the knee so he’d sit back up.

“Hello, Lance. Who’s this?” He asked, looking towards Keith and pointing at the image on his screen. Before he could introduce Keith, Lance’s mother filled his father in. “Oh, well, welcome to the family, son.” He smiled warmly. 

“Uh, thank you, sir.” Keith replied, still a little pink.

“Ha, sir!” Lance’s dad nudged his wife, “He’s already got more manners than our other children! You can call me Jaime, or Dad, son. I do appreciate ‘sir’ though.” Jaime grinned.

“Yes, sir.” Keith said quietly.

“Call me Mama, or Rosa.” Lance’s mom chirped, pulling one of Lance’s younger nieces into her lap. 

Keith looked ready to run away again, and as Lance watched him he saw his eyes watering up a little. “Yes ma’am.” He murmured.

“No, no, mah-ma,” Rosa said slowly, like Keith had simply pronounced it wrong.

“Err… Mama.” Keith parroted the accent a little, and Lance knew he definitely was trying to find a way to leave.

“We shou-” Lance began.

“Are you bringing Keith back for Christmas this year?” His dad interrupted. 

“Um, maybe? We’ll see, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it out this year.” Lance shrugged, looking a little sad. “We actually should get going now though, it’s been a long day and we are tired.”

“Oh… okay.” Lance’s parents seemed a little sad, but they smiled again after a second, “Keith, I’m counting on you to take good care of my boy.” Jaime winked at him then gave Rosa a confused look when she swatted at him and said something.

“Heh... “ Lance blushed lightly at whatever it was and then shook his head, “Well I’ll talk to you again in a couple of days! I love you!”

“Te amo!” Lance’s family called back, waving sweetly. 

Lance glanced over and nudged Keith to get him to wave. “They’re talking to you too, Keith.” He explained quietly. Keith seemed overwhelmed, but waved with Lance as the call was ended. Lance smiled softly and closed his laptop. “Well, um… what do you think?”

Keith was looking a little dazed, “They’re so nice…” he said quietly.

“Yeah, they are.” Lance looked over at him, and frowned. Keith was wiping at his face. “Hey… you alright?” He scooted closer and put a hand around him. 

“I’m fine…” Keith said, pulling away and standing, “I just… I-”

“Keith.” Lance was worried now. “I’m sorry, was that…? Did I mess up by doing this?”

“No!” Keith turned suddenly, a small smile on his lips, “I’m just so… happy? I haven’t, I don’t know. I haven’t felt like this? They’re so nice, and… just… “ He shook his head, walking down the hall, “I’m going to go lay down…” He came back and hugged Lance tightly, “Thank you.” Then he was he was gone before Lance could say anything.

Yeah, Lance’s plan worked out perfectly.

“I’ll tell you when dinner’s ready!” He called and then went to the kitchen to cook dinner, a warm feeling in his chest and a smile on his face.

 

~~~

 

“Keith!” Lance called, finishing up with his cooking. “Come eat!” 

“Urgh!” Keith heard a thump and a loud curse, then Keith was walking down the hall with a grimace. “Thanks, Lance…” He said as he was handed a plate. He sat down on the couch to eat, stretching a little with a wince. 

“Is your back still hurting you?” Lance asked, concerned. 

Keith sighed and started to eat, “Yeah, it’ll go away…” 

Lance rolled his eyes and they ate in silence. They finished eating Keith and thanked Lance again, walking to the sink to do their dishes. Lance could tell his back was still bothering him though, even if Keith was now trying to hide it by sitting on the couch and turning on the television. When he made another face while adjusting his position Lance decided to gather his courage. He walked down to his room and then came back holding a tube. “That’s it, Mullet, shirt off and lay down.”

“What?” Keith squeaked, looking at Lance with wide eyes until he saw that Lance had a bottle of therapeutic stress relief lotion. “Lance, what are you doing?” He gave him a weak glare.

“I’m giving out one of my amazing and famous massages. So strip.” Lance huffed, walking over and tugging at the hem of Keith’s shirt. “I know you’re in pain, and you’re too stubborn to get real help. So I’m doing this.”

“Why-” Keith looked up and saw the determination in Lance’s face. He knew he was not about to drop it anytime soon. “Fine… I’m too tired to argue with you.” He nudged Lance’s hand away and pulled off his shirt.

“Good, now lay on your stomach.” Lance grinned triumphantly, watching Keith obey even if he was acting like he hated this. “See, isn’t so hard, is it?” Lance smirked, pouring some lotion onto his hands and then straddling the back of his waist, using his knees to hold him up so he wasn’t sitting on him.

Keith tensed immediately when he felt the couch dip, pushing up on his forearms a little and turning to look back at Lance the best he could. “Is this necessary?” He asked, uncomfortable, with his face bright red.

“Yes, it’s easier this way.” Lance huffed, pushing gently on Keith’s shoulder, “I know it’s impossible for you, but lay down and at least attempt to relax?” Keith stared for a second longer then with a huff he grabbed a pillow to prop under him so he could watch TV while Lance was massaging him. 

Lance smiled, finally placing his hands on the tense muscles of Keith’s back and getting to work. Keith sucked in a slight breath, “It’s kinda… cold? but warm?” He said, unsure and tensing again.

“Yeah, it’s supposed to do that.” Lance assured him, feeling him relax again, “It has menthol in it. It’s good for soothing sore muscles.” Keith hummed, and didn’t say much else for a bit. Lance started to work the muscles in his lower back and when he found a knot. Pressing his fingers into it and working it out, he didn’t expect Keith to let out a low moan. Wasn’t even sure Keith was capable of even sounding like that, and he realized that maybe this wasn’t his best idea of the night. “Does that feel good?” He asked, silently thanking whoever was listening that his voice sounded even and calm. 

“Mmmhmmm,” Keith sighed, more tension draining from him as Lance continued. He made pleased noises every time Lance worked on a tender spot, and it was driving Lance crazy. He knew he couldn’t just stop the massage though for no reason so he continued, face burning. When he reached Keith’s shoulders he let himself glance at the other’s face.

A pleased smile was on Keith’s face and his eyes were closed, it made Lance’s heart jump to his throat. His hands worked their way from his shoulders in towards his neck, and Lance let his gaze fall over his arms and back freely. Lance’s hands were on the muscles closest to Keith’s neck his pointer fingers brushing up slightly when he felt Keith’s entire body tense again, he glanced over and as soon as their eyes met he relaxed again and closed them once more, turning his face to nuzzle into the pillow a little. Lance knew he should be a little concerned about the implications of that reaction, but he couldn’t help focusing on how cute Keith was when he was relaxed and almost cuddly. 

Although he was technically done, and he had wanted it to be over earlier, Lance didn’t want to stop just yet. So he started going back over Keith’s back the way he had worked it before. Keith still made small noises here and there, but they were more quiet and a little muffled by the pillow. Lance was just past his lower ribs when he noticed that Keith’s breathing had shifted. He glanced up to his face and saw that he was asleep. He let out a small chuckle and finished the massage anyway, going over the part that seemed the most sore one last time before carefully climbing off. Keith was out cold. 

Lance shook his head then went to the bathroom to wash the lotion off his hands, that warm feeling in his chest again. He couldn’t help but remember his friends’ comments earlier in the day, or the fact that his parents had also figured they were a cute couple. He let himself hope a little, but then recalled how quickly Keith had dismissed Shiro’s comments. The way he had crossed his arms and seemed almost mad about it. 

How much that had hurt.

Lance shook his head, maybe he was just grumpy from pain. It didn’t mean Lance couldn’t try to woo him, right? He sighed and then felt a distraction was needed, he started his nightly routine.  
With a shower and his face routine all done, Lance had easily passed an hour and then some. He figured Keith would have gone to bed, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to check. 

Sure enough Keith was still passed out on the couch in the same position, smiling softly. Lance really didn’t want to wake him. So he made sure he was comfortable, fetching a blanket and tucking him in before going to his own room. Keith hadn’t really shown any signs he was into Lance, so he hadn’t made any real moves or even mentioned relationships. Keith didn’t really seem interested today.

Maybe tomorrow.

 

~~~

 

As promised the next day, after work, they went to the mall. Lance had insisted on buying them some food in the food court, as they walked around the entire mall, looking in windows, and stopping in stores. Keith couldn’t help but noticed the way Lance kept so close to him as they walked, often bumping arms even when there was no crowd. 

He wanted to believe it was because Lance liked him, but thought it was probably because he was happily looking at all the things they passed. Lance seemed really happy today, just walking around aimlessly with Keith. It almost felt like a date.

“So… Are we going to actually look at any decorations?” Keith asked playfully as they passed another store that seemed fine.

“Yeah, we will.” Lance defended, glancing at Keith with a small blush. “I just want to get inspired first. Is that so wrong?”

“No, I was just kidding.” Keith smiled, “You passed a few stores that seemed fine enough.”

“They didn’t strike me. I want to go to a store that makes me want to stop, because then it’ll have something I really want.” Lance smirked when they passed a shop front that had mirrors, “Like that, it’s gorgeous-” He looked at Keith who starred at the mirror in the display of a clothing shop, “Oh wait, that’s just your reflection. I thought it was a work of fine art.” He winked at Keith and wiggled his eyebrows.

Keith sputtered, looking at Lance then shaking his head and avoiding his gaze, “You’re such a nerd.”

“Keeeeeiiiiith!” Lance whined as his roommate stalked off without him. “That was one of my best lines!”

Keith put his hands in his pockets and still wouldn’t look at Lance even when he caught up. “Maybe you should use them on someone then, instead of testing them on me. See if it gets you anywhere.” He grumbled

Lance paused and wanted to tell him that he had meant it when something caught his eye in an actual home decor shop, “Keith, let's go in here.” He smiled, taking Keith by the hand and leading him in.

As they walked around the store and Lance tried to pick out the perfect decorations, Keith couldn’t concentrate. This was mostly because Lance hadn’t dropped his hand. In fact when he let go to pick something up he put it back and grabbed his hand again, this time their fingers were interlocked as they continued to look around. He was able to notice that Lance was now looking at pottery pieces. He stood closer and nudged him with his shoulder, feeling a bit brave since they were holding hands. “You can make any of this stuff easily. Why are you even bothering looking at it?” He asked, frowning.

“Hmm?” Lance glanced at him, then at the pottery then back, “I’m not this good, Keith…” He frowned, looking a little shy.

“You’re right.” Keith shrugged, using his free hand to nudge Lance’s chin so he’d look at him, “You make stuff much better than this crap.” He offered him a small, soft smile, eyes filled with adoration.

Lance was pretty sure he was dreaming. “You’re so sweet, Keith.” He smiled back, and before he made a mistake by acting on what his heart wanted to do he tugged Keith over to some shelves the store was selling. “I guess wall art and shelves are more for us, huh?” 

“Yeah, I’d prefer your art instead of this mass produced stuff.” He agreed, watching the way Lance seemed to take in the complement like it was the best thing in the world. Their adventures went on like this for a good hour. They stopped holding hands for a bit when Keith was carrying their purchases- including their new toaster- to the car. They still stuck close to each other and Lance was pleasantly surprised whenever Keith would reach out and hold his hand when he wasn’t carrying anything. 

Keith thought things were going great, he was watching as Lance had started shopping for clothes without a care in the world. Lance kept asking him what he thought and Keith kept shrugging and saying it looked nice. This apparently was annoying Lance since he started grabbing more outrageous things and making Keith laugh until he started actually giving input. 

Lance had narrowed his choices down and told Keith to stay put while he tried them on. Keith nodded and waited, looking out the front of the store to the shop front.

His eyes instantly locked with a pair of glaring golden ones.

Keith bristled, it was obvious that he was watching them, stalking. He immediately glared back as he thought of Lance in the changing room, completely unaware that Lotor was here. 

Keith made a decision to keep Lance happy and unaware. He was going to make sure Lotor wouldn’t get a chance to ruin Lance’s fun outing.

Lance came out with a couple of shirts he decided on and smiled happily at Keith, who walked forwards, blocking his view. He reached out and put his arm on Lance’s, gently guiding him towards the register and keeping him blocked from Lotor’s gaze as best he could. Smiling he made up something about the shirts he heard another guy telling his girlfriend. “That one looks really nice with your eyes. Makes them um…”

“Pop?” Lance supplied, looking at Keith with a smirk, “Thanks, Keith. For attempting the complement at least.” He laughed.

“Heh, right…” Keith frowned, brow furrowed.

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked as they moved up a little.

“Why would you want your eyes to pop? Wouldn’t that be painful?”

Lance laughed, “It’s an expression, mullet! It means stand out.”

“Oh.” Keith frowned, “Then your eyes pop out all the time, not just with a shirt.”

Lance snorted, laughing harder, “It’s just pop… holy crow, do you live under a rock? Heh, we’ll work on it.” He smiled fondly at Keith as they walked up so Lance could buy his shirts. When they left to wander around a little more, Keith checked behind them nonchalantly.

Sure enough Lotor was following them, one of his friends by his side. It sent a chill down his spine and he felt a surge of protectiveness. He didn’t even notice when his hand drifted around Lance’s waist as they walked. 

Lance, however, definitely noticed this. He felt ecstatic about it too, now he knew that Keith probably did feel the same. “Hey, Keith?” He asked, looking up and walking as close as he could to his side. 

“Hmm?” Keith gave him his full attention.

“Want to go sit by the fountain for a little?” He asked, guiding them towards the door that led to an area with a large fountain lit with colorful lights and surrounded by benches.

“Sure, whatever you want.” Keith shrugged, finally noticing his arm. He didn’t move it.

“Cool.” Lance said, walking them out and to a bench. When Keith looked around at the other people sitting around he noticed they were mostly couples cuddling. He sat down and while he processed what this might say about Lance bringing him here he felt something warm against his side. Looking over, he saw Lance was the source, and oh, now he was leaning against Keith a little bit. “It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

“Um, yeah… beautiful.” He replied, blushing lightly as he slowly put his arm around Lance, watching him for any sign to pull away. 

He didn’t get one, instead Lance rested his head on his shoulder with a hum, much like the other couples cuddling. “Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been thinking…” Lance paused, biting his lip and looking up at him, meeting his eyes, “I really-”

“Well, well, what do we have here?” Lotor’s voice made Lance seize up immediately, eyes going wide as his head snapped up to stare at him in shock. “Someone seems to be a little confused.” He purred as he stood in front of them, glaring down. “You see, he’s mine, and I don’t share.” He glared at Keith.

Keith mentally cursed himself for forgetting about Lotor, but gazed back defiantly. He barked out a laugh, “That’s the dumbest, most pretentious thing I’ve ever heard.”

“What?” Lotor snapped, clearly used to people standing aside for him.

Keith stood, squaring off with Lotor and sizing him up, “You heard me, asshole. He isn’t anything to you, least of all yours.” He snarled, “Now get lost.” 

Lotor held Keith’s glare, stepping forwards, Keith did the same, muscles tensing and preparing for a fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! 
> 
> ... I'll update soon, don't worry. ;P 
> 
> Couple things: I kept the original Voltron Lance's last name the same. His father's got a bit of a mixed heritage that's where the name came from. Also, I think the names for the parents are pretty nice. Jaime's name may be partly inspired by Blue Beetle... not gonna lie.
> 
> Okay, hope that's alright? No one's mad? Over a fictional work? Kay? ... cool. :)


	13. Pulling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your comments and kudos! I know I say it every chapter but they really mean so much to me. Especially you guys who comment multiple times. 
> 
> When you raise the walls of a pot on the wheel, it is called pulling. Sometimes, if you pull too much or too thin, the walls of the pot might collapse. It takes lots of practice to walk the fine line of thin walls on ceramic pieces. .... I'll let Shiro explain a little more ;P

“I’ll give you a chance to reconsider.” Lotor glared, “What did you say?”

“Are you deaf and stupid? I said to get lost.” Keith all but snarled, his hand curling into a fist. He started to pull his arm up when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“No, lets just leave.” Lance said, standing next to Keith and pulling him insistently. “He isn’t worth it, besides I’m pretty sure that security guard is on his way over here.” 

Keith looked over to Lance and frowned. Lance was staring at the ground, curled in on himself a little, clearly wanting to be far away from where they were. Keith sighed and started to nod when he was shoved backwards by Lotor. “Oh? Seems you found someone who is all bark and no bite.” Lotor huffed, grabbing Lance’s other hand and tugging lightly, “Come on, Lance, let's stop wasting time with this little game.” 

Keith saw red. He stepped forwards, smacked Lotor’s hand away from Lance’s wrist and then shoved him back a few steps. Before he knew it his arm was around Lance’s shoulders and they were walking away from a bewildered Lotor. Lance seemed to withdrawn into himself when Keith looked down at him so he led them through the mall, checking to be sure they weren’t being followed before heading to the car.

He opened the door for Lance and made sure he was settled before getting in the driver’s seat. He took a deep breath, locking the doors and starting the engine, then looked over to Lance. Lance was staring at his hands in his lap, looking distant. Cautiously, Keith reached over and rested his hand over Lance’s. “Hey…” He waited for Lance to look up, “Are you okay?”

Lance took a shuddering breath, “I- F-fine.. yeah… fine.”

“Do I need to go back there and pick a fight?” Keith asked in a teasing tone, small smile playing at his lips.

Lance’s eyes widened, “No!” He saw Keith was joking and let himself smile softly, “Thank you, Keith.”

“For what?” Keith huffed, pulling his hand back and putting the car into drive, pulling out of the parking space. “I didn’t even get to punch that smug asshole in the face.”

That earned a small chuckle from Lance, “As much as he deserves it, I’m glad you didn’t. It uh… It means a lot that you listened to me. So, thank you.”

Keith’s brow furrowed, “Why wouldn’t I listen to you? You were clearly uncomfortable, anyone with any decency would have done the same. Don’t thank me for that.”

“Not anyone…” Lance mumbled then looked over to Keith, “Just take the complement, samurai.”

Keith laughed, “There’s the Lancey Lance I know and love.” 

“You love me?” Lance purred, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“I said ‘we’ it’s an expression.” Keith grumbled.

“I heard ‘I’, not we.” Lance smirked. “Admit it, I’m irresistable.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “Uh-huh, you’re something alright.” 

“Pfft, shut up, mullet.” He laughed.

 

~~~

 

Keith was woken up by something he didn’t quite register. Blinking he turned on his lamp and listened, hearing some faint noises from Lance’s room that sounded suspiciously like crying. He frowned, getting up and quietly making his way to Lance’s door. He rapped lightly on it, the sounds stopped. “Lance? You… Are you up?” He asked, figuring it’d be harder for Lance to pretend to be fine if he phrased it that way.

“Yes,” came from the room, though it was muffled, shaky, and followed by a loud sniff. 

“Can I come in?” He asked, already opening the door a little.

“No.” Keith opened the door anyway and was hit in the face with a pillow, “I said no!” 

Keith caught the pillow and walked to Lance’s bed anyway, “Well I didn’t exactly invite you to my room the other night either.” He smirked, finally looking at his roommate’s face.

Lance was clearly shaken up, and had been crying. “I-... well… that’s… that’s fair…” Lance relented, curling his legs up and wrapping his arms around them. 

Keith rolled his eyes and climbed onto the bed, putting his arms around him, Lance immediately leaned his head on his shoulder. He held him for a few minutes, letting him calm down a little more before asking, “What’s wrong?”

Lance shook his head, “Just a nightmare…”

“Seems pretty bad to make you this upset.” Keith said, unconsciously rubbing Lance’s arm a little.

“It was nothing-...” Lance glanced up and saw Keith’s face at that then sighed, “Okay, okay… It was about some things that happened back when Lotor and I were… together.” He admitted, grimacing.

“Do you uh… want to talk about it?” Keith asked, trying to keep calm even if this made him seethe with anger inside.

He shook his head again, “No, I just want to forget it.”

Keith nodded, resting his head on top of Lance’s as he held him. “How do you usually deal with this sorta thing?” He asked, realizing he wasn’t sure what to do or say.

Lance hummed, “I don’t know… usually I’m alone and cry myself back to sleep.” 

“Well that option is out. What else makes you feel better?”

“Well…” Lance had a small smile on his face as he glanced towards Keith, “When I was little my siblings and I would dance on the bed to chase bad dreams away. It always worked.”

“Dancing?” Keith asked, pulling away from Lance so he could look down at him. “That’s going to make you feel better?”

Lance gave him a small nod, “It might help?”

“I’m not very good at it.” Keith said, though Lance was already sitting up and pulling away to go turn on his music.

“You don’t have to be, Keith.” Lance said, picking a song and walking back over, climbing on the bed. “You’re here with me and that’s what counts.” He started to stand up, looking hopefully at Keith, who sighed, shook his head, but stood nonetheless. 

Lance gave him a small, happy smile, and Keith couldn’t help but return it. Next thing he knew Lance’s hands were in his and they were bouncing a little as they swayed. Lance started getting into it and moving around a little more, Keith following as Lance started to sing along. Keith recognized the song and started humming along as well, tripping up a little and cursing, as he stumbled and almost fell off the bed. Lance caught him and they started laughing. 

They carried on like that until they got tired and kept tripping on the sheets, eventually Keith had enough and pulled Lance close to him before nudging him off balance and falling over with him so they were laying down. Lance let out a squeak which had them laughing again, Lance pressing his face into Keith’s shoulder out of embarrassment. Keith poked Lance’s side, making him squirm, “I didn’t know you could reach a note that high.” He teased.

“It wasn’t that squeaky, you jerk.” Lance grumbled, lightly thumping his arm playfully.

“It definitely was.” Keith laughed when Lance swatted at him again. Lance sat up and gave him a half-hearted glare, that didn’t seem threatening with the grin he was wearing.

“Keith.”

“Hmm?” Keith asked, suddenly extremely conscious of their position, and how much he really liked it when Lance was smiling at him.

“Thank you.” He said softly, rolling off of him to the side to more easily pull him into an improvised hug. “I haven’t felt this great in a long, long time.” He admitted, pulling back to stare into his eyes with a loving smile.

Keith felt like he was way in over his head. “I uh... I should be thanking you.” He said, smiling as he shook his head when Lance gave him a confused look, focusing on the wall behind Lance. “I haven’t felt this… happy… ever.” He looked back to Lance, half expecting to be kicked out. 

Instead he was met with a grin and sparkling blue eyes. “Really?”

“Yeah. Really.” Keith said, letting out a content sigh, draping his arm around Lance once more and pulling him a little closer. “I like it when you’re happy.”

“I gotta admit, you’re a lot cuter when you smile.” Lance gave a little wink, curling closer to him, heart pounding.

Keith put his forehead against Lance’s, wondering if he was dreaming. “Are you feeling better?”

Lance’s hands had drifted up and now they started playing with Keith’s hair. “Damn your hair is soft.” He said quietly.

Keith scoffed, “Lance, I just want to know you’re okay.” He said, suddenly more serious.

“I’m a lot better, thanks to you.” Lance replied, quietly. Keith smiled in return, pleased with his answer. Lance felt the urge to just go for it and kiss him, everything was perfect, and he was certain that Keith was who he wanted to be with. 

But that was the problem. 

With everything so perfect, he didn’t want to ruin it. Keith was happy, and they were so close, Lance felt so safe and happy. If he did go for it and say something or just act on his feelings he could ruin everything in a second. 

So he decided to just enjoy what they had while it lasted. He sat up and pulled a blanket over them, cuddling up close to Keith again. Keith turned off the lamp and then went right back to holding him, and Lance sighed happily, “Goodnight, Keith.”

“Sweet dreams, Lance.” Keith replied, and Lance felt a light pressure on his forehead for just a moment. He figured that was too good to be true, and tried to focus on calming his thoughts so he could get to sleep.

 

~~~

 

Keith woke up with a weight on his chest. He frowned and tried to move so he could get up, but found it difficult. Looking down he saw Lance tangled up with him and the blanket they had been sharing, he was smiling in his sleep and it gave Keith a strange feeling in his heart. Everything felt perfect, warm, and safe for once. Like time was standing still and it was just them.

He found he didn’t want to move, and was content to do so until he looked at the clock. 

They were late for work.

Keith sat up, Lance slipping down into his lap and waking up slightly. Lance grumbled then wrapped himself around Keith more, going back to sleep. Keith silently cursed the powers that be before he sighed and shook Lance awake. “Hey, get up, we’re late for work.”

“Hmmm? So? I’m comfy.” Lance hummed. 

Keith wanted to give in, but that was not going to happen. “As comfy as you are, I don’t want to lose my job more. So get up.”

“Keeeeeeeeeeeef!” Lance groaned as Keith reluctantly started to pry Lance off of himself.

“We need to get up, Lance. We are going to be late enough as it is.” Keith grumbled back, finally getting untangled and standing up. “Come on or I’ll leave without you.”

Lance sat up, hair messy, “You wouldn’t, you like me too much.”

“Try me, sleeping beauty.” Keith smirked at him as he went to his room to get ready. 

 

~~~

 

As soon as they parked they were rushing into the studio, Keith barely remembering to lock the car. They all but ran inside, turning the corner and slowing as they saw the others working on their projects. “Sorry we’re late!” Lance huffed, walking in with Keith following close behind.

“Yeah, sorry, we-” he heard a meow and looked down to see Red walking towards him. “What?”

“It’s alright, we are simply working on some projects for the competition. It is supposed to be quite a slow day.” Allura replied, Blue purring happily as he sat on her shoulder while she sat at a wheel next to Shiro who had Luna perched on him the same way. 

“Blue!? I thought I was your favorite! The betrayal!” Lance gasped at the cat, falling to his knees in his dramatics. Blue meowed and hopped down to come check on him.

Keith picked up Red and let her climb on his shoulder too, “What are the cats doing in the studio?”

“They’re supurrvisors!” Allura grinned, proud of the pun. 

Shiro nodded, smiling at her then at Keith, “Allura thought they would help lift our spirits and inspire us to get ready for the competition.” 

“Well she was right!” Lance gushed, holding Blue up above him as he sat up, then hugging the kitten lovingly. “This is the best idea ever!”

Keith scratched at Red’s chin, walking past Lance and blue, watching Poppy bat at Hunk’s newest piece that was spinning on the wheel. “Uh… they, sure are trying to help.”

Hunk smiled, “Isn’t it adorable! I’m going to try and get Poppy’s paw prints on this one too.” 

Pidge adjusted their glasses with their forearm. “Poppy seems to be the most interested in being hands on.”

“Because he’s my little ray of sunshine and happiness!” Hunk said in a loving baby voice to the kitten who mewled back at him. 

Keith shook his head and laughed, “Okay, well, I’m going to unload the kilns.” He took Red off his shoulder and set her on Lance’s shoulders before walking off to the back. 

Lance tensed but then Red started to nuzzle him, “Awww! Look! It’s a miracle.”

“I told you you were exaggerating when you called Red evil.” Shiro smiled. 

“She bit me the first time we met! On the nose!” 

 

~~~

 

Keith decided to walk with Shiro to get some shakes during their break. However Keith noticed a strange car in the parking lot. Shiro shook him out of his paranoia, “So how is your new roommate situation?” 

Keith looked up at him, “Huh? Oh, it’s going surprisingly great. I was worried we would fight more, but we get along really, really well.”

Shiro gave him a knowing smile, “Is that so?” 

“Yeah,” Keith paused and glared, “Shiro, it’s not like that.”

“So you don’t like him?”

“No- I… urgh!” Keith ran his hands through his hair. “I do, but he doesn’t like me like that. I don’t want to make it awkward. It would screw everything up. We’ve had bonding moments, Shiro. I cradled him in my arms!”

Shiro chuckled, receiving a punch in the arm. “It sounds pretty serious.” 

“It is.” Keith groaned, looking miserable. 

“You know, when you’re on the pottery wheel and you want to push the form just a little bit more, but it’s already very delicate?”

Keith raised an eyebrow at the sudden topic change. “Yeah?”

“What do you do? You can push the form, make something even better, or you can leave it as it is and never know, never be satisfied.” Shiro mused, holding the door open for him. 

“I guess I’d at least try.” Keith shrugged, “I can just try again if it falls, doesn’t seem to be a point in leaving it alone when you’ll just be unhappy.”

“So you’re saying, that if you want something you should go after it, even if it might not work out? To be happier knowing?” Shiro smiled, watching Keith blink and put two and two together. As soon as he saw the light bulb go off in Keith’s expression he stepped forward to order, leaving Keith to sputter angrily.

Once they got their shakes they started to walk back to the studio. “You know, I’m getting really tired of your vague advice.” Keith muttered at him, looking towards the parking lot. He thought he caught a glimpse of white hair by the strange car, but figured he might just be a little paranoid. 

“You want me to be more straight forwards?”

“Yes.” Keith huffed, taking a drink.

“I think you should ask Lance to be your boyfriend. You two are good for eachother.” 

Keith started choking. “W-what? Why?”

“Well, you two are clearly a good match. You get along, stare at each other when the other isn’t looking… And honestly it’s getting really annoying watching you two tip toe around this.”

“Tell me how you really feel.”

Shiro blinked, “I just did.”

Keith shook his head. “I want to tell him, but… I don’t know. If he rejects me and it makes things weird… I don’t know if I can deal with that. So I’d rather not even try.”

Shiro sighed, “Keith, I’ve known Lance for a long time. If he didn’t like you, which I’m certain he really does like you, but even if he didn’t he wouldn’t let it come between you. Can you at least consider it?”

“Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

Shiro smiled, nodding. Then he looked over to the parking lot, eyes narrowing, “Hey, is that car a little weird to you? It’s been there a long time.”

Keith felt grateful for the subject change, and that someone else noticed. “Yeah, it’s parked close to the studio, so it doesn’t seem like it’s for another place. I’m kind of worried about it.”

“Really? What for?” Shiro asked, glancing at Keith, he wasn’t used to him worrying about these types of things.

“Lance’s ex kind of showed up when we went to the mall.” Keith admitted, glaring at the car.

Shiro turned serious, color draining from his face a little, “At the apartment?”

“No, it was when we were walking around the shops. We almost got in a fight…” Keith shook his head, “I almost wish Lance hadn’t stopped me from punching him.”

Shiro put a steady hand on Keith’s shoulder, “I’m glad he did, I don’t want to bail you out of mall jail.” He smiled jokingly, “Let’s not worry about the car right now, it’s probably nothing. I do want to know if Lotor shows up again though.”

“I’m sure you’ll be the first to know.” Keith shrugged, calming down a little, but still couldn’t shake that nagging suspicion in the back of his mind.

“I mean it, Keith. You tend to rush headfirst into these things. If you see him around again I want you to call someone first.” 

Keith scoffed, “Yes, mom.”

“I’m serious, Keith.” Shiro stood in front of him, making sure Keith was looking at him, “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”

“Okay, I promise.”

 

~~~

 

“Sooooo~ I want to hear about the mall.” Allura grinned, sitting across from Lance with her drink at their usual little table of the nearby coffee shop. “Did you finally make a move?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

Lance sighed, slouching. “I was going to,” he glanced up at Allura’s nonplussed expression and sat up, “I really was ‘Lura, I swear! We even held hands and went to the fountain together-”

Allura gasped, “I knew it! Did you kiss? I want details, Lance.”

Lance shook his head, looking glum. “No, we were interrupted by Lotor showing up before I could say anything.”

“What?” Allura looked both angry and concerned, “Lance, why didn’t you call me? Or Hunk or even Shiro?”

Lance smiled softly, “Keith kind of took care of it, actually. He was completely ready to get in a fight with him.” He glanced up at Allura again, who was still a little worried but seemed pleased enough with the news. “I asked him not to, and he didn’t even argue. He backed down because I asked him to, and got us away from him. Then when we got back to the car he made sure I was alright, and even later he checked on me when I had a nightmare.” 

Allura grinned, “He did? That sounds so sweet.”

“Yeah, and he even insisted on staying with me until I felt better.” Lance stared at his coffee, blushing as he relived the memories of them dancing and cuddling. “He’s too perfect, Allura.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it bad.” She winked at him.

Lance groaned dramatically and put his head on the table, “I do. It’s awful.”

“Why is it so awful?” She frowned, tilting her head, “If you’re so in love you should just tell him how you feel.”

Lance sat up, “Okay. One,” he held up a finger, “It’s too early to call it love. And two,” he held up a second finger, “If he doesn’t like me back I’m messing up our current relationship. Therefore, it’s an awful situation. I can’t betray his trust like that, do you know how closed off the guy is?”

Allura sighed, “I’m aware he’s rather… closed off to new people. But I do think it’s worth a shot. Do you really want to torture yourselves over not knowing?” She gave him a small, encouraging look, “Plus you said it yourself, Keith is very sweet. If he doesn’t feel the same I don’t think he would let it come between you two.”

He smiled, gaining some confidence, “Yeah, you’re right. I’m going to tell him, I need to.” He started thinking of what to say. “I’ll tell him tonight, maybe, if the timing is right.”

“Lance, you’re just talking yourself out of it again.”

“Urgh… you’re right. Okay. Today, it’s going to happen today.” He said, hitting his fist on the table in determination. “I’m not backing down. If I don’t find a way to tell him by tonight I’ll convince him to come with me on a walk in the park and tell him there.”

“Yes! That is a brilliant Idea!” Allura grinned, an excited sparkle lighting her eyes. 

“And you have to tell Shiro you like him too!” 

“Yes I-.... Lance!” Allura glared as he laughed, she whacked him playfully on the arm. 

 

~~~

 

Keith finally let out a breath of relief when he rolled the cart over the bump in the doorway, the bisque pieces shaking far less. He pushed it over to the others and paused, pulling some items off. “Some of your pieces are done.” He announced, watching as they all looked up excitedly. 

Lance was the first one up and washing his hands clean before rushing over as Keith set out the last few pieces. “Ha, yes!” He looked to the clock, “Perfect timing too!”

“Timing?” He asked, looking to Pidge for a clue. 

Pidge grinned, and Hunk groaned. “Four-twenty, glaze it!” Both Pidge and Lance shouted at the same time before laughing.

“You walked into that one.” Shiro smirked, picking up the large statue Allura had made. It was an intricate angel holding the large orb Shiro had thrown on the wheel. It was a stunning piece, even before glazing. He set it down on a different table so he and Allura could look at it and discuss glazing.

Keith sighed and shook his head, though he was smiling a little, “Yeah I guess I did.” 

“Look at this.” Lance said, pulling up the piece Keith had helped carve. He walked over, standing close to him and bumping him lightly, “Our baby made it through the first firing.”

“You two must be proud fathers.” Hunk smiled, looking at the piece appreciatively, “It’ll be really neat, you should enter it in the show. Someone might even pay you a lot of money for it when it’s done.”

“Our first baby is not for sale!” Lance huffed, curling around the pot and turning towards Keith like he was shielding it from harm. He put one hand on Keith’s upper arm, “Tell him, darling. Don’t let him sell our baby.”

Keith stared at Lance, blushing lightly and blinking until he realized a response was expected. “Uh… Hunk, it’s not for sale?” He tried, and it seemed to be what Lance wanted to hear.

“See?” Lance said triumphantly.

Pidge rolled their eyes, “Yeah, yeah, you two husbands enjoy your baby. Keith hand me my teacup, you forgot one.”

Keith looked behind him onto the top of the cart and saw the delicate teacup that was part of a set. It was so thin the light shined through it. He reached up and carefully cradled it. “I’m pretty sure this will break if you even look at it funny, Pidge. I am a bit amazed it survived at all.” He said, handing it to them.

Pidge puffed up in pride “I know, it’s kind of my thing. No big deal.”

Hunk smiled as he picked up one of his large creations as easily as if it were one of Pidge’s teacups. “Oh, Keith, I forgot to ask, how is your back doing? Is it still bothering you?”

“Oh, no, it’s a lot better now. Lance gave me a massage and it helped a lot.” Keith shrugged.

“Oh he did, did he?” Pidge said, wiggling their eyebrows at Lance who gave them a warning look in return.

“Yeah it was really nice.” Keith smiled. “Well, I’m going to go put the rest of this away and load another kiln.”

“Wait, we should glaze this together.” Lance said, tugging on Keith’s apron. “It’s only right. Then I can show you how to glaze your uh… cups?” He looked at the first attempts that Keith had bisque fired at Shiro’s insistence. 

“Uh… sure, I guess they’ll be good for testing what glazes do.” Keith shrugged, picking up his pieces from the cart and putting them on the table. He frowned at how out of place they looked. 

Naturally, Hunk noticed. “They’re really good for your first time, Keith.” he said encouragingly. “It just takes practice.” 

“Thanks, Hunk.” Keith smirked, “But I know they’re not that great, it’s fine. It’s part of learning. Patience yields focus, right?” He looked over to Shiro and they shared a smile. “I’ll be right back.”

 

~~~

 

“So this is a sprayer.” Lance explained. He had already glazed the inside of the pot and wiped down the outside of it so it was dry enough for Keith to glaze. He put the pieces together with the air compressor and twisted the bottom bottle that connected to an air brush, “We put some glaze in here, but we want to sift it through this screen first so it sprays better. Which color would you like?” He asked.

“Umm… What about this?” He asked, pulling out some Ox Blood red.

“Sure… I put midnight blue, so I don’t know how good it’ll look… That color runs too. So it needs to be applied carefully.” Lance explained.

“You don’t seem too thrilled.” Keith smirked, “We can put a different color towards the bottom if you want.” 

“I guess it’ll be better for glazing to do that…” 

“You can do that part, then.” Keith said, pouring the glaze over the mesh and into the container. “But I’m putting this one on the top.” 

“Fine, fine.” Lance rolled his eyes, going over to a cabinet and pulling out two little masks “Put this on.” he said, tossing him a mask and pulling on his own. He turned on the spray booth and the fan started, making it louder. He had already set up the pot in the booth on a banding wheel so they could spin it. “You want to turn this and hold the sprayer a little away from the vase.” He explained, speaking louder to be heard over the machines. 

Lance gestured Keith over and handed him the spray brush. He stepped behind him and put his hand on his, guiding it to point at a wall of the booth, pressing down on Keith’s finger so that it sprayed a little. “It’s always good to test it like this first so you don’t mess anything up.” Lance explained, talking in Keith’s ear so he didn’t have to be so loud. Keith seemed a little frozen, but nodded after a second. Lance took it as a hint to continue. He reached around Keith’s other side and under the banding wheel to give it a little, slow spin. “We want it to go about this speed so we get a nice even coat. When you get to where you started take your hand off the trigger so it stops. A few coats should work with this glaze since it runs.” He explained, feeling a little braver and stepping a bit closer behind Keith. 

Keith nodded again, glancing back at Lance before trying to focus on the task at hand. He took a deep breath and turned his head again, “Can you show me first?” He asked.

Lance nodded, smiling behind his mask as he put his hand around Keith’s and the airbrush again. He guided him through the steps of the first layer. “So, just do that one or two more times.” 

“Okay, thanks, Lance.” Keith said, feeling a bit of a loss when Lance let go and stepped away. He pushed those thoughts away and repeated the action again, until the glaze seemed even and powdery. He turned the sprayer and the booth off and looked to Lance, “Is that good enough?”

Lance stepped forwards and inspected it. “Yep, our baby’s looking good. Just like it’s daddies.” He looked over to Keith and gave a flirty wink.

Keith rolled his eyes and turned to walk inside, “Whatever, Lance. I’m going to stick to dipping my other pieces for now. Call me when you’re done and I’ll help you clean the booth out.” He walked through the doors and didn’t look back to see Lance’s shoulders slump slightly.

 

~~~

 

Lance stretched as they walked through the door of their apartment, “Mmm, finally! That was a long day.”

“You worked on your projects all day, there were hardly any customers and you didn’t even have a class.” Keith reminded him, kicking off his shoes and walking over to the kitchen, throwing out the trash from their fast-food dinner.

“Still, such creative genius takes a lot out of you.” Lance sighed as he plopped onto the couch. 

“You’re such a drama queen.”

“You know you love me.”

Keith didn’t respond to that, instead he opened the fridge to pull out a drink. “Do you want anything while I’m up?” 

“Hmmm… I guess a water.” Lance said, face smushed into a couch pillow.

Keith grabbed him a water and turned to go hand it to him. He saw Lance’s shirt was pushed up to expose his skin a little on his back. Keith couldn’t help it, he quietly padded over and set the water right on his skin. 

Lance jumped up and yelped, “Keith!” He shouted, turning around and glaring at his laughing roommate.

“I had to, sorry.” He grinned.

Lance couldn’t be mad at that face. “Urgh… you’re lucky you’re cute, Keith.” 

That shut him up.

Keith wouldn’t look at him now, and seemed almost shy. He seemed like he was debating saying something, but shook his head and started to shuffle off towards the hallway. Lance wasn’t having that, he had meant what he said when he promised Allura and himself. He was going to tell him, tonight.

“Hey, wait. Do you want to go hang out at the park a little? Maybe take a walk?” Lance asked.

Keith turned to raise an eyebrow at him, cheeks a light pink. “I thought you were tired.”

“Well I’m not that tired. Do you want to go or not?” He asked, suddenly nervous.

Keith seemed to think about it, then shrugged, “Sure. Let’s go.” He turned towards the door and went to put his shoes on. Lance let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, smiling a little.   
So far so good, he thought.

 

They locked up the apartment and made their way down to the main entrance. The park wasn’t far and so they decided to just walk there. Lance was chattering on about a show he was watching, and Keith was listening, even if he didn’t really care for it by the description. 

Keith looked towards the parking area for visitors and stopped walking. 

There was that car again.

“Keith?” Lance asked, pausing a few steps ahead of him. He tuned with a questioning look, then followed his gaze. “Fuck, no, no, no. This isn’t happening….” he said quietly, heart dropping. Tonight was supposed to be perfect, this was not a part of Lance’s plans at all.

Keith glared as the car door opened and his suspicions were confirmed by a now familiar head of white hair. Lance grabbed onto Keith’s arm, hard. Keith looked at him, saw how Lance had paled and how scared he looked. That’s when he decided that he was not backing down. Shiro could scold him about it all he wanted, but he was going to deal with this his way, right now. “Lance, go back inside. Call Shiro.” he said, turning towards Lotor who was now walking up like he owned the place.

“Keith, no, please. Let’s just… go home…” 

“We can’t run home if we are already here, Lance.” Keith replied, pulling away. “Go inside, I’ll handle this.” 

“This is none of your concern.” Lotor said, stopping a few feet away from them. “This is between me and my boyfriend.”

“He isn’t your boyfriend.” Keith growled, then looked back to Lance, “Please, just run inside. Now.” He begged quietly. Lance nodded numbly, backing away and going towards the apartments, stopping inside the gate and pulling out his phone to call Shiro and Hunk.

“Oh how sweet, playing the knight in shining armor.” Lotor rolled his eyes, watching Lance run. “I’ll just talk to him after I’ve dealt with you I suppose.” He gazed coolly at Keith, looking at him like he was simply a piece of gum in his path.

“Like hell you will.” Keith snarled, his hands curling into fists.

Lotor scoffed then swung a fist at Keith, who ducked easily. Keith reacted with a lightning fast punch, connecting directly in the center of Lotor’s face with a satisfying crunch.

Keith allowed himself a small smile in triumph, until he was kicked in the gut with such force he stumbled back into a wall. 

Lance held the phone to his ear as it rang, turning when he heard the sound of the fight starting. “Hello?” Shiro’s voice asked. Lance didn’t answer, he was staring at the two exchanging blows that looked like they hurt, feeling terrified and helpless. “Lance? Hello? Are you there?” 

“Shiro… Help.” Lance finally managed to reply. Then the floodgates burst and the words were pouring out. “I convinced Keith to go to the park with me because I wanted to confess. Then we were barely out the door when Lotor showed up. Fuck fuck fuck, Shiro they’re fighting, please Shiro I don’t know what to do. Keith didn’t want to just run back inside, oh my god this is all my fault. Shit, Shiro-”

“Lance, Lance… Lance!” Shiro finally shouted into the phone, making Lance quiet down. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Stay in a safe area, call Hunk. I’m on my way.” 

“Hurry.”

“I will.” There was a click and Lance pulled the phone away, glancing down for a second to dial Hunk with shaking hands. He was just pressing send when he heard a thud and a loud curse. Glancing up he saw Keith on the ground, with Lotor moving in to kick him in the ribs. 

Lance ignored the small voice coming from his phone as he watched Keith roll away after taking a few hits. Keith got to his feet and shot forwards to tackle Lotor to the ground, pinning him and getting some punches in himself. The relief of seeing Keith getting the upper hand again let him focus on calling Hunk. He glanced at his phone and lifted it to his ear, “Hunk, I need you to get here now.”

“What? Lance, buddy, I’m with Shaye. Can’t it wait?” Hunk asked.

“Lotor found out where I live.” Lance said, wincing as he watch Keith get tossed like a rag doll. “He’s here and Keith’s fighting him. Shiro is on his way, but-”

“What?” Hunk asked, interrupting Lance. “How did he even find you? Wh- never mind. I’ll be there in a minute, buddy. Get inside, that guy is psycho.”

“But Keith-”

“Keith’s tough, Lance. Just get somewhere safe.” Hunk assured him, some rustling coming from his end. “If you get somewhere safe where Lotor can’t see you maybe he’ll leave.”

“I can’t just leave Keith out here, Hunk.” Lance let out a startled noise when Lotor got the upper hand again and started to twist Keith’s arm in a way that had to be painful. “Hunk, I have to do something he’s trying to kill him.” Lance watched as Lotor reached into a pocket and pulled something out, a metallic glint made Lance’s heart stop. “Holy fuck he has a knife-”

Keith twisted his body and got away from Lotor’s hold in time to avoid the knife. He glared, spitting onto the ground and reaching into one of the packs he usually wore on his belt, pulling out his own knife as he said something to Lotor. Lotor laughed and twirled his knife like it was all just a game. They went at each other again, this time though Keith seemed to have Lotor more worried. “Lance get out of there now.” Hunk was shouting, “Call the cops. I’m on my way.” 

“Hunk don’t hang up- please buddy.” Lance was crying, torn between getting to safety and wanting to somehow help Keith. 

“Call the police, Lance. For Keith.” Hunk said firmly. 

“I- I… Okay, okay…” Lance relented, watching as Keith and Lotor seemed to be in a draw. “I think… wait I think it’s over?” The two had been pressing back against the other, evenly matched when they broke apart and backed up. Lotor was sizing up Keith, who had fallen into a fighting stance again and was watching his every move. Lotor sneered and said something to Keith before backing away and going to his car. Keith watched warily until Lotor finally shouted something, got in his car and left. “Hunk, it’s over, Lotor left.” he didn’t bother saying anything else, just hung up. He walked out of the gate and ran over to Keith.

Keith turned, tensed and ready to fight again. He saw Lance and relaxed, putting his knife away. “I thought I told you to go inside.”

“Don’t ever fucking scare me like that!” Lance shouted, pulling Keith into a tight hung.

Keith hissed, “Fuck, that hurts!” 

Lance let go and backed off, “Oh my god, sorry sorry!” They heard a car pulling in and turned, staring wide eyed. The car pulled up and turned off, Shiro climbing out. “Shiro!” Lance breathed, Keith relaxing. and backing up a little from Lance.

“I came as soon as I could. What happened? Where’s-?” Shiro said, looking at Keith with panic.

Lance stepped in front of him and stopped him with a hug, taking up his full attention. “Lotor left, Keith fought him off. Shiro it was so scary…” Lance started to tell Shiro all about the fight and how scared he was. “Keith saved my life.” He ended, turning with a smile towards Keith.

Rather, towards where Keith had been standing, and was now currently laying on the ground.

“Keith!” Shiro gasped, rushing over with Lance and checking on him. “We need to get him to a doctor. I don’t know how badly he’s hurt.”

“No, no way… no…” Lance started crying again, “This isn’t how this was supposed to go! I was going to tell him I love him, Shiro!” He sobbed, holding Keith’s limp hand like he could physically pull him to consciousness. “Keith, wake up.”

“Lance, calm down. It’s likely not as bad as it looks.” Shiro picked up Keith carefully and put him into the back seat of his car. “Come on, let’s get him to a doctor.”


	14. Collaring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Collaring is the act of shaping a pot on the potters wheel to shrink down and form a thinner, tighter, shape.

Hunk groaned, pressing his hands to his forehead and squeezing his eyes shut. Lance was pacing and muttering under his breath about how it was all his fault and all the things that could possibly go wrong with Keith. Shiro was passed out in a chair next to him, having exhausted himself from trying to keep Lance calm before Hunk had arrived. Lance’s muttering had started to sound panicked again, and Hunk had had enough. “Lance. Sit down, please.” He begged, running his hands down his face in exasperation. “You pacing and blaming yourself isn’t going to help anything, at all. It’s just driving me crazy.”

“But-”

“No buts! Sit. Down.” Hunk commanded, pointing to the seat next to him. 

Lance pouted, but then sighed and walked over, looking utterly defeated. He plopped down and slumped against his best friend. “I really screwed up, Hunk.” 

“What? How?” Hunk said, putting an arm around his friend, patting his arm. “This wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes it was.” Lance wrapped his arms around himself, looking hurt. “I put him in that situation by moving in with him. Now who knows how badly he’s hurt. I didn’t even get to tell him I-” He sniffled, hands coming up to wipe at his eyes again.

“Hey, don’t you start again.” Hunk said, eyes watering up a little, “If-if you start crying I’m going to start crying.” His heart broke a little when Lance started to actually cry again. “Too late I’m already crying.” He pulled Lance into a slightly awkwardly angled hug and let him cry it out. Every now and then he would gently remind Lance it wasn’t his fault and that Keith would be okay, he had to be.

Apparently they had been making a bit of a ruckus, since they had quite a few people’s attention in the waiting room, and Shiro stirred from his nap. Shiro blinked, looking around until he remembered where he was. He sat up and stretched, sighing when he saw Lance was crying again. He stood, moving in front of his friends. “Hey, it’s alright.” He said, squatting down in front of them, patting Lance gently with his prosthetic arm. “Keith’s going to be alright.” He soothed, looking and sounding tired. “The nurses and doctor said they didn’t think it was anything very serious. They’re just double checking.” 

Lance sniffled, staring at Shiro with watery eyes, “Shiro… this is-”

“It’s not your fault.” Both Shiro and Hunk said at the same time. 

Lance was about to argue when a nurse came out and called for anyone with Keith Kogane. They stood and Lance had to use every ounce of willpower he had to keep from running down the halls to find Keith himself. The nurse’s words as she led them down the hall seemed to blur together and he couldn’t understand a thing she said, all he could think of was Keith. 

Finally they stopped at a bed in a small room, the nurse opened the door for them then left them. Lance froze, he wanted nothing more than to see Keith, but now that he was here he was terrified of what he would find. Shiro nudged him gently, snapping him out of it and offering him a small smile of encouragement. “Go on.”

“R-right…” Lance nodded, walking in first. When he walked in he kept his eyes on the floor, until he heard a noise from Keith. Immediately his eyes snapped up and met the dark violet of Keith’s. He stared for a minute, taking in Keith’s messy hair, the bruises on his face and arms, the bandages where his skin had broken. He saw the way that Keith looked pale and weak, his arm was bandaged, but nothing seemed to be broken or in a cast. “Keith…” He breathed, then broke into a grin and dashed to the bed, leaning over and hugging Keith.

Keith blinked, then slowly hugged back, tilting his head and breathing in his scent. “Hmmm, Lance.” He said, though he sounded groggy. “Are you alright?” He slurred slightly.

“Am I alright? You’re worried about me?” Lance asked, pulling back with wide eyes and fresh tears. “You were the one in a fight Keith! You’re in a hospital bed!” He laughed, his hands moving up as he tangled them in Keith’s hair. 

Keith simply smiled and closed his eyes, “Oh… well… as long as you’re alright, Lance.”

“It sounds like they gave you the good stuff.” Shiro laughed from the foot of Keith’s bed.

“Everything is so nice… and fuzzy…” Keith murmured, then looked into Lance’s eyes. “It’s like how I feel when I see you, but all over… with the pain in my head instead of my chest.” 

Lance blushed, while Shiro and Hunk shared a knowing look. “We should go check on when he can go home. The nurse did say he had a pretty bad concussion.” Hunk said after a second. “Right, Shiro?”

“Right. Lance, why don’t you keep an eye on him.” Shiro smirked, heading out the door with Hunk, “He has tried to escape hospitals before.”

“That was only once…” Keith slurred groggily, glancing at Shiro with a frown, Lance made a mental note to find out that story later. Then Keith looked back up to Lance, “I don’t want to leave you though.” He said with a small smile again.

Lance smiled back, untangling a hand to wipe at his eyes, “Keith. I wanted to tell you something, and I was so scared I wouldn’t ever be able to tell you after what happened with Lotor. Fuck… this is all my fault, I’m so sorry.” He squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head.

“It’s not your fault…” Keith said quietly, eyes getting droopy as he fought off sleep. “I was gonna hit him anyway. What were you gonna tell me?” He asked, reaching up to touch Lance’s face gently like he wasn’t real and he wanted to make sure.

Lance opened his eyes, leaning a bit closer, “I love you, Keith. I love you so much. I want to be with you, if you’ll have a mess like me.”

Keith stared, and Lance started to panic. After a second Keith grinned, “I love you too. I’ve had a crush on you since the day we met.” hHe admitted, and Lance let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “When I saw you with that girl… the one who locked you in the cage… it hurt so bad. When they hurt you I was so mad, I would have gone after them if you didn’t need me.” He pulled Lance forwards a little so their foreheads were touching. “I’d do anything to make you happy, I love you so much.”

Lance leaned forwards and kissed him, Keith made a small noise of contentment, then blinked when Lance broke the kiss. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” He asked with a smile.

Keith’s eyes widened slightly, he looked at Lance like it was the most obvious answer. “Lance… How could I? You’re… you’re like the ocean.” He said, lifting his other hand to run both through Lance’s hair and hold his face like he was the most important thing in the world. “I was so terrified, I was drowning in you. Your eyes, your laugh, your voice, just all of you. It was so scary, I had never felt this way before.” He let out a small laugh, “It was like when we were swimming. I didn’t know if I would drown, if you’d be there for me, it was that feeling of panic constantly.” He pulled Lance down for a short kiss. “It was so perfect though, you’re so amazing and I would have gladly drowned if it meant being with you. I couldn’t risk wrecking that. I never want to lose you.” He kissed him again. “I’d do anything to keep you with me, even if you loved someone else. As long as I could see you.” Keith’s hands relaxed, moving away from Lance’s face and resting back on the bed. He looked up into those blue eyes and his eyes widened when he saw tears. “Lance… don’t, don’t cry. Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt you?” He asked, panicking.

Lance shook his head, smiling. He leaned down and kissed him lovingly, “Keith… No, that was just… the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Even if it didn’t make any sense?” Keith smiled drearily. 

Lance laughed, “It made enough sense. I wish I said something sooner. Maybe none of this would have happened.” He leaned down and kissed him again, longer this time. He felt his body and mind relax, Keith was here and he loved him back, everything felt perfect. He didn’t want the moment to end. 

Unfortunately that was when Shiro and Hunk decided to walk back in. “So Keith just has a few prescriptions for us to get, and then he can go home.” Shiro announced, smirking when Lance jumped in the air and moved as far from Keith as possible, almost tripping on a chair in the process. 

Keith just stared for a minute, looking confused. Then he recognized Shiro and Hunk, and he waved.

Hunk chuckled and waved back, walking over to stand next to Lance while Shiro turned to go get the prescription from a nurse. “Hey, Keith, you feelin’ alright?” Hunk grinned. 

“Hmmm,” Keith said, glassy eyes looking over to them, “I feel amazing. Is Lance okay?”

“Lance is fine.” Hunk smiled, while Lance stared at them, dumbfounded.

“Good.” Keith nodded, closing his eyes.

“You guys I’m right here.” He huffed.

“He’s on some serious stuff, Lance.” Hunk patted his shoulder. “He’s just worried about you.”

“Yeah… I love you, Lance.” Keith said, eyes struggling to stay open. “I just love you.”

Hunk made an excited squealing noise and shook Lance’s shoulder. Lance rolled his eyes and stepped towards the bed, brushing some hair out of Keith’s face. “I love you too, go ahead and sleep.”

“G’night, darlin’.” Keith slurred, slipping into sleep, his slurring having a small southern accent to it.

Lance couldn’t help but grin and giggle slightly, he was absolutely giddy. He hopped up and down then turned and jumped up to hug Hunk out of pure joy. “Oh my god, Hunk.” He whisper-yelled, “He loves me back! He actually loves me back!”

“Congrats, buddy.” Hunk smiled, hugging his friend and setting him down. “Come on, let's go see if Shiro needs our help getting Keith’s stuff together.” Lance nodded and they went to go find Shiro.

 

~~~

 

The next morning Keith woke up in his bed in a lot of pain. He sat up and looked over to his nightstand, finding a glass of water and some pills. He frowned but the pounding in his head demanded more medicine and less thinking. So he read the labels and took what was prescribed, wondering where the prescriptions even came from. They had his name on them, but he didn’t remember getting them. He groaned and lay back down, closing his eyes tightly. The last thing he remembered was Lotor running off, Lance running up to him and Shiro’s car pulling up. Everything after that was a blank. He breathed, trying to relax, then his brain woke up. He sat up, hissing as he bolted out of bed and ran down the hall. His voice was still a little raw with sleep as he called out, “Lance! Lance!” He ran into the living room, promptly tripping on a blanket that had been left out on the floor. 

“Keith?- Ah!” Lance yelped, having turned just as Keith fell on top of him.

Keith pushed himself up, staring at Lance, both of them blushing and frozen. “Uh…”

Lance laughed, leaning up and pulling Keith down into a kiss. When they parted Lance was smiling up at him lovingly, while Keith stared down at him in shock with wide eyes. Lance stared back, smile slowly slipping from his face and turning to concern when he realized Keith wasn’t reacting the way he should. 

“...What?” Keith asked breathlessly, looking dumbfounded and scared. 

Lance sat up more, and Keith startled, crawling off him and backing away. “Keith… I-” He looked hurt as he watched who he thought was his boyfriend back away from him. “Don’t you remember?” He asked, shaking a little as he stood up. 

Keith stared at him, slowly shaking his head. “I remember Lotor leaving, and you hugging me… Then Shiro’s car… and it’s all blank after that.” He said slowly, hands shaking. 

Lance cautiously stepped forwards. “Last night… we… at the hospital?” he asked, flinching when Keith shook his head. He stopped, looking devastated, “You don’t… you don’t remember? All those things you said?! You don’t remember any of it!?” He started to raise his voice, tears pricking his eyes. 

Keith frowned, walking to Lance. “Lance, I don’t know… It’s all a blank-I… why are you so mad? What’s wrong? Did I-”

“What the fuck Keith!?” Lance shouted, throwing his hands up, “Did you even mean any of that shit!?”

“Mean what!?” Keith shouted back, getting upset because he was being yelled at for something he didn’t even know if he did.

“Was it all a fucking joke!?” 

“What was!? What the hell are you talking about!?”

Lance was too upset to realize that Keith was just frustrated. He backed away, storming towards the door, only stopping to put on his flip flops and grab his keys, “All that shit about loving me back! Know what? Forget it I don’t want to know! Fuck you, Keith!” He shouted, as he walked out the door, slamming it behind him. 

Keith could only stare at the door, heart pounding and eyes watering. He stood there for a couple minutes, in complete shock. Finally he took a deep breath, and broke down. His hands were shaking as he reached up to run them over his face. He felt the tears there and let out a frustrated yell, turning and storming back to his room. He ignored the pain as he started to get dressed, cursing absolutely everything and beating himself up. He hadn’t even lasted a day, his wish had come true and he hadn’t even been able to keep it going for five minutes. He banged his head against the wall, regretting it immediately. He wished he had never let himself fall, hadn’t let himself get close, he knew better. This always happened whenever he was happy.

Keith pulled on his shoes and grabbed his keys, barely remembering to lock up before rushing to his car. He wiped the tears from his face and shook his head. He told himself then and there that he was not going to fall down that rabbit hole again. 

He was going to fix this.

 

~~~

 

“Hey, buddy!” Hunk greeted, grinning until he saw Lance’s face. He frowned as he watched Lance slam his locker open. “Is… is everything alright?”

Lance threw his jacket inside and pulled his apron out before slamming the door shut again. He didn’t even glance at Hunk, just slammed his head into the locker and began sobbing. Hunk jumped, walking forwards and putting a hand on his back. Lance turned around and slid down until he was sitting, curling up. “He…,” He sniffed, “He doesn’t remember.”

“Who?” Hunk asked, crouching down then it hit him and he gasped, “Oh-... oh!” He frowned and pulled Lance into a hug. “Aww, Lance… it’s alright. He hit his head pretty hard.” Lance shook his head. “I’m sure he feels the same way, still. Maybe he just was surprised?” 

Lance’s sobs died down a bit, “Do you think?”

“Yeah, of course.” Hunk soothed. “He was completely without filters while he was on that medicine. No way he was lying, I’m sure he wouldn’t hurt you on purpose.”

Lance looked up at him, but was still crying, “I yelled at him!”

“You what?”

Lance curled up again, “I yelled at him, Hunk! I- I cussed at him and took off!”

Hunk frowned at his friend. “Why?” 

The door banged opened and a frazzled looking Keith whipped his head around until he saw Lance crying in Hunk’s arms. He opened his mouth and was about to say something when Lance shouted, “Get the fuck out!” Without looking up to see who it was. Keith made a small noise and Lance shouted over it, “Out! Now!”

Keith stared, absolutely crushed. He was completely sure that Lance had known it was him. Dejected he backed out of the door, shoulders slumped, letting it fall closed as he turned away. He felt absolutely numb as he walked back towards the main part of the studio.

Hunk was looking at the door with his mouth hanging open as Lance started sobbing again. “Lance…”

“What?” He snapped, “I’m an idiot? I know that, Hunk!”

“No, I-...” Hunk looked at his friend then the door, then back, “Well… I mean… you do need to calm down. And uh, you did kind of just tell Keith to ‘get the fuck out.” He winced as soon as the truth fell out.

“What!?” Lance’s head shot up, staring at the door, listening as footsteps were walking away. 

“He looked really upset, Lance.” Hunk admitted, “Maybe you two should clear this up.” But he didn’t have to say anything since Lance was already scrambling to get up and chase Keith. 

However when he got to the studio he didn’t see him anywhere.

 

~~~

 

Shiro heard the doors to the kilns close and turned. He blinked, “Keith. You know you’re not supposed to be here today.” He then saw how shaken up he looked. Frowning he set down a glazed piece he was unloading and walked over. “What’s wrong?”

Keith just stared straight ahead, completely unresponsive. Shiro guided him out the back doors to the alley way. They sat down on a bench that had been put together for breaks. 

“Keith, what’s going on? You look really upset…” Shiro tried again, still getting the same devastated, blank response. His brow furrowed and he reached over to feel Keith’s forehead. He didn’t find a fever, so he let his hand drift to his shoulder, shaking him lightly. “Keith?” No response, he shook him a little more roughly. “Keith? Do I have to take you back to the hospital? You’re making me worry.” Still nothing. Shiro sighed turning Keith’s head to look at his irises, besides the blank look he seemed fine. “Keith… I’m going to go tell Lance-”

Keith snapped out of it, tears welling up as soon as he heard Lance’s name. 

“Keith?” Shiro frowned, putting his arm around him, “Hey, what? Is something wrong with Lance?”

Keith shook his head, “I messed up, Shiro…” He croaked, wiping furiously at his face. “He hates me.”

“I thought you two were dating?” Shiro blinked, looking perplexed.

“I didn’t remember anything from last night after you pulled up in your car.” Keith said dejectedly, “He kissed me this morning, and… and I didn’t know what was happening… I froze! He-... he got so mad, Shiro. He stormed out and I tried to follow him here and… and apologize but then he yelled at me again- I fucked up so badly.” He pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes and let out a choked sob before crying out angrily. 

Shiro processed this, then gave Keith a stern look, “You drove here by yourself, didn’t you?”

“So?”

“So? Keith, you’re supposed to be on bed rest. Do you know how dangerous that was?” Shiro chastised. 

“I have some bigger concerns, Shiro!”

Shiro stood up, crossing his arms and giving Keith his disappointed dad stare. “You could have killed yourself, Keith!”

“Good.”

“No, not good!” Shiro huffed, throwing his hands in the air, “Keith, that was very dangerous! This misunderstanding between you and Lance wasn’t worth risking your life!”

Lance had heard the yelling and poked his head out the back alley door. “Shiro?” He asked meekly, wanting to talk to Keith.

“Not now, Lance.” Shiro put his hands on his hips, “Keith decided it was okay to drive here by himself with a concussion and on medication, putting his life at risk because Lance is mad about him not remembering last night.” He held his disappointment a little longer until he noticed Keith staring over at the door. Then he glanced over, realized that he had been talking to Lance, and backed up a step. He dropped his arms and sighed. “We’re not done, Keith.” He said before walking off.

Lance let Shiro pass before he cautiously made his way over to sit on the bench next to Keith. They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Lance started, “Keith… I’m sorry. I didn’t know that was you when I was with Hunk.” He sighed, “I was so upset earlier, it just hurt me so badly to think that… well that you didn’t mean anything you said to me last night. I didn’t even think of how confused and upset all that could have made you.”

“I’m sorry too…” Keith frowned, looking at his shoes. “I shouldn’t have yelled.” He shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut, “I wish I knew what I said.”

Lance looked over and put his arm around Keith, “Hey… you can’t control that. You were on a lot of drugs, and you hit your head pretty hard.” 

“I made you so upset.” He shook his head, “What happened? I still don’t know.”

Lance gave Keith the chance to pull away, and when he didn’t he hugged him. “I kind of… confessed that I love you. I was going to tell you when we went to the park, but… We never made it there.”

Keith nudged him lightly. “And what did I say?”

“You confessed that you love me too.” Lance said, suddenly looking unsure. “And now... Now I’m uh… I’m hoping that wasn’t the drugs talking.”

Keith sat up a little, turning to look at Lance with surprise. “What?” He asked, and Lance started to pull away in response. Keith shook his head, putting his arms around Lance, “That’s ridiculous, Lance.” He looked into his eyes with a small smile, “What’s not to love about you?” Cautiously, he kissed his cheek. “I was just scared you were messing with me. I do love you, really.” 

“Really really?” Lance asked, smiling at him, wrapping his arms around him again.

“Yes.”

“Really, really, really?” Lance batted his eyes.

“Okay, I changed my mind.” Keith grinned, letting go and lightly trying to push him.

“Noooooo,” Lance laughed, “I’m sorry, my love! Don’t leave me here to die sad and alone!”

Keith laughed, cupping Lance’s jaw and kissing him softly, “That seems rather dramatic, doesn’t it? I doubt you’d die here.”

“I’d die instantly of a broken heart.” Lance smirked, winking.

“You’re such a dork.”

“That may be true, but you know you love me.”

Keith grinned, and Lance felt his heart leap into his throat, “Yeah, I do.”

 

~~~ 

 

“There you two are.” Pidge huffed as Lance was walking Keith back through the studio to take him home. “Wow, what’s wrong with your face?”

“Well first off, rude.” Lance huffed back at them, one arm around Keith’s waist and the other holding up a finger in the air, “Second he beat the shit out of Lotor last night, got a concussion, and has a few bruises so shut it or I’ll send him after you next.”

“Lance,” Keith warned, though it was playful and he was wearing a small smile.

“You both know I know all your weaknesses.” Pidge retorted, crossing their arms and looking the couple over. “So would I be right to assume you two finally stopped dancing around your feelings and you’re dating now?”

Keith turned red, while Lance grinned and pulled his boyfriend closer, kissing the top of his head. “That’s right, Pidgeon! Mullet here is all mine.” He beamed.

“Finally,” They grinned, “Hunk and I were getting exhausted watching you two idiots.”

“Hey!” Lance bristled, offended. 

Keith simply laughed, putting an arm around his boyfriend and squeezing gently, “We were pretty dumb about all of this.” He admitted. 

“I guess…”

“Well at least you two are together now and can focus on the competition.” Pidge shrugged. “Oh and Congratulations.”

“Well I can focus on the competition. Keith here needs to get home and go rest before he makes anything worse.” Lance huffed, frowning.

Keith’s facial expression soured, he gave Lance a small glare, “I’m fine, just a little dizzy.”

“Dizzy is not fine!” Lance looked around and saw Shiro, “Shiro! Tell Keith he needs to go back home! He said he’s dizzy and thinks that that’s fine!”

“Go home Keith.” Shiro called back in his dad voice, making Keith groan and roll his eyes.

“You two sound like an old married couple already.” Hunk chimed in, coming out of the glaze room as he wiped his hands on his apron. “But they have a point Keith, the doctor was pretty clear that you need to take it easy. It’s bad enough you drove here.”

“You what?!” Lance squawked.

“How did you think I got here?” Keith blinked at him.

“I don’t know… a taxi? Like a sane person!?” Lance threw his hands in the air and walked a few paces away, “I’m dating a man with a death wish!” 

“You’re so dramatic.” Keith grumbled, rolling his eyes.

“I think he’s being reasonable, actually.” Hunk said, looking worried about Keith’s health. “We were at the hospital awhile. And you could have easily crashed or passed out behind the wheel. Let us help you home.”

“But I drove here fine, I can go back just as well-”

“Keith.” Shiro warned in his disappointed dad voice.

“Stop using the dad voice.” Keith huffed.

“No, keep using the dad voice,” Lance crossed his arms, looking back at Keith “You need someone to make you see reason and if it calls for the dad voice then it’s what you’re getting.”

“Ugh, fine, just… fine I’ll let you guys take me home.” Keith relented, though he didn’t seem happy about it.

“Good. Keys.” Lance commanded, holding out his hand, Keith sighed, glaring half heartedly as he pulled the keys out of his back pocket and handed them to Lance. “Thank you, Hunk mind following us then driving me back?”

“I’ll follow you, Lance, Hunk is busy and I need a break anyway.” Shiro said, pulling off his apron and taking out his own keys. “Besides, I’d like to talk with you.”


	15. Climbing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dreaded talk, a surprise, a not so pleasant interaction, and then the competition. What could go wrong?! :D
> 
> Climbing is when the kiln's temperature is rising up to meet the desired temperature for firing. What happens when the kiln is fired up. ;) If the kiln climbs too high though, the clay might melt. Then you'll lose your work and a shelf too! D:
> 
> Okay enough being vague. Enjoy!

Lance would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous about Shiro’s inevitable ‘talk’, but that certainly wasn’t going to admit it. He was doing what he did best when he was nervous, talking to Keith about anything and everything. Unfortunately Keith had fallen asleep despite his best efforts, leaving Lance alone with his thoughts. 

They soon arrived at the apartment, Keith refusing to be woken up. Shiro came over and chuckled, startling Lance. “He’s never been very good at waking up.” 

“So I’ve noticed.” Lance huffed, leaning down and undoing the buckle then pulling Keith into his arms and lifting him up bridal style. He adjusted so that Keith’s head rested on his shoulder. “Can you get the door, Shiro?”

“Sure thing.” Shiro smiled, closing the door and following Lance to their door and helping him unlock it.

“Thanks.” Lance nodded, carrying Keith off to his room. He lay him down on the bed and tucked him in, kissing his forehead and staring at him for a little bit. 

“You really do like him, don’t you?” Shiro’s voice startled him, making him jump.

Lance was blushing, “Wh-wha? Shiro! Jeez, man, I’m going to make you start wearing a bell.” He breathed, putting a hand on his chest. 

Shiro rolled his eyes, “Come on let’s get back to work, drama king.” 

“Drama king? I assure you anyone would have reacted the same way.”

He laughed, walking away, “Yeah, of course they would.” 

Lance followed him out to the car, pouting only a little bit. He climbed into the passenger seat of Shiro’s car, and buckled in, suddenly remembering that they still had to have a talk. He glanced over at Shiro who was starting the car and backing out. It was quiet until they got onto the road. “So, Lance, about that talk.”

“Uh… right. That.” Lance took a breath, sinking down into his seat as best he could.

Shiro glanced at him then back to the road, shaking his head a little. “Don’t be like that, this is a bit weird for me too.”

“It is?”

“Well of course it is. Keith is like a brother to me, and you’re someone I’m protective of anyway.” Shiro shrugged. “I was thinking about it on the way to drop Keith off. I want to give you the usual ‘break his heart and I’ll break your bones’ speech or however those things go, but honestly? I could give the same speech to Keith.” He sighed, stopping at a red light and looking over at Lance. “I really believe you two are good for eachother, and I don’t want either of you hurt. Mostly for your own sake, but a little bit because I couldn’t ever bring myself to hurt either of you.” He turned his focus back to the road. “So all I can say is this… Be good to him, he hasn’t had much good in his life.”

“Of course I’ll be good to him Shiro.” Lance smiled softly. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like him, or anyone I’ve liked this much.”

“Good. Now, I also wanted to be sure you two are being… safe.” 

“Oh my god Shiro, I am not having this talk with you. I will jump out of this car.”

Shiro laughed. “I’m just messing with you, Lance.”

“Oh thank god!”

“But, seriously, be safe.” Shiro smirked as Lance groaned and covered his face.

 

~~~

 

Shiro had ended up firing the kilns for the week leading up to competition. Keith had been cleared to work a few days before the final kiln firing, but everyone agreed to only have him assist Shiro in firing the kilns. Keith wasn’t too thrilled about that, but he was outnumbered. However, he did get to be the first to see the project him and Lance had worked together on since he had started working there. It had turned out beautiful, blue and red glaze mixing to create a deep purple where they touched, swirled in a mesmerizing way. The cutouts Keith had done on the double walled pot were accentuated by the colors colliding and pooling in the crevices, showing off how thin Lance had pulled the walls. The thin neck of the vase flaring beautifully at the top, some of the ruffling they had added catching the light and showing off the different hues hidden in the glazes. 

Naturally, Lance had loved it. “Our baby is so beautiful, Keith!” He exclaimed, holding it up to the sky for everyone to admire it. “Truly a child of our love!”

“Uh, sure, babe.” Keith said, raising an eyebrow and looking at him skeptically.

“Keiiiith!” Lance huffed, setting the pot down on a table before smiling at his boyfriend, wrapping his arms around the back of his neck, “Stop being so negative.”

“Only if you stop being over dramatic.” He smiled, resting his hands on Lance’s hips.

“It’s beautiful, and you know it.” 

“It is pretty.” 

“I think we should enter it in the competition.” Lance smiled, kissing him lightly.

“Really?” Keith tilted his head then shrugged, “If you think so.”

“I do.”

“Get a room!” Pidge shouted at them as they passed, splashing glaze at them. “Gross!”

“Pidge!” Lance yelped, wiping the glaze off of himself while Keith just rolled his eyes.   
“If I have to watch you two be all lovey dovey I get to flick stuff at you.” They stuck their tongue out, then continued to the sink. 

Keith chuckled, “I guess that’s fair.”

“What!? It is not.” Lance huffed.

“Sounds fair to me.” Shiro replied, carefully setting the project he and Allura had been working on down on a table. He let out a breath and dusted off his hands, “Finally.” 

Lance let out a whistle of appreciation. “That’s amazing, Shiro.” Keith said, walking towards it and admiring the sculpture. Shiro had thrown a large, perfect sphere on the wheel, connecting it to a base that Allura had carved. Delicate porcelain sculptures stuck out and encircled the piece, in a way that made it seem as if they were floating. The glaze on the globe was a mix of purples greens and blues, creating an alien-esque looking planet. 

“It was mostly Allura’s sculpting that brought it to life.” Shiro replied modestly.

“What’s it titled?” Pidge asked, circling the piece and inspecting every inch with interest. 

“Altea.” Allura replied happily, walking in and seeing the finished product. She had a large grin on her face. “It’s called Altea.”

“That’s a neat name.” Lance smiled “What’s it mean?”

“It was originally something that just sounded cool.” Shiro shrugged, putting an arm around Allura, “But then Allura did some research and apparently it’s combined Latin and Greek which means ‘to heal’.”

Lance and Allura shared a look, that Keith couldn’t figure out for the life of him and had Pidge smirking and plotting her next evil scheme. “That’s really poetic.” Keith said, giving up on deciphering the nonverbal conversation Allura and Lance were having.

“It ended up fitting very well, didn’t it?” Allura nodded, pressing up against Shiro a little bit more. 

Suddenly Keith thought he had figured out what her and Lance’s look had been about. He raised an eyebrow at Shiro who decided to start avoiding eye contact with him at all costs. Keith smirked, but left it alone. 

Lance stretched, letting out an obviously fake yawn, “Well I’m getting pretty tired! We better finish packing everything for the competition and call it a night!”

“What are you-?” Keith was cut off by a jab from Lance’s elbow, he glared then saw the way Lance was gesturing with his eyebrows towards Shiro and Allura. “Oh-...oh! Right… um, yeah tired. That.” He picked up their vase, “I’ll go pack this with the other things, you go get our things.” 

“I better go check on Hunk.” Pidge said, walking off as well. 

Suddenly Allura and Shiro were alone in the studio’s work space. “That was… odd.” Shiro blinked, a slight frown on his face.

“Yeah, I wonder what that was about.” Allura said, feigning innocence.

 

~~~

 

Keith unlocked the door and threw his keys in the little dish Lance had set by the door so they would stop losing them. “Hey, you aren’t actually tired, are you?” He asked, glancing at Lance before taking off his jacket and hanging it up on a hook. 

“No, not really.” Lance smiled walking over to plop down on the couch, sprawling out like he usually did. “I just said that to give us an excuse to leave those love birds alone.”

“Oh, good. I was hoping that’s what that was.” Keith said, walking towards their room. They had soon moved into the bigger room together, investing in a bigger bed as well. “So you aren’t tired?”

“No.” Lance narrowed his eyes at Keith suspiciously. “Why?”

“Well I was kind of hoping that maybe you’d like to go on a date with me?” Keith shrugged, disappearing down the hall, “Since you’re not tired and all.”

“What!? Keith!” Lance said, standing up immediately, “Yes I want to go on a date! You don’t just ask and walk away, come back here!” He moved to follow him but was stopped when he turned down the hall.

Keith was standing there waiting for him. He smiled and reached up to cup his face, kissing him gently then pulling away. “That’s great, put on something warm.”

“I- uh… okay.” Lance blinked, brain short circuiting as he tried to recall Keith being this smooth and romantic. He made his way down the hall to the closet and started getting ready. 

When he was done he walked into their living room to find Keith waiting for him. He had on tight jeans, some boots, and a leather jacket that did something to Lance that made him unable to remember how to breathe for a few seconds. Keith’s lips quirked up into a mischievous half smile. “Ready?” He asked, making his way towards Lance who could only nod. “Good, here, you’ll need this.” Keith handed him something heavy, kissing him as he did so. He then pulled away and tucked something under his arm, leading the way out. Lance smiled, walking after him.

Then he glanced down.

And started to get worried. 

Keith had handed him a motorcycle helmet. 

“Um… Keith?” He asked as Keith led the way into a parking area of the apartments Lance hadn’t been to. 

“Yeah?” He asked, glancing back as he stopped in front of a very well kept red motorcycle. 

“Since when have you… had this?”

Keith stared for a second, unsure what Lance meant, “I’ve had my bike for awhile. But if you mean the helmet I just got that one for you. I haven’t taken anyone out before.” He explained, worried Lance might be thinking he had taken others out on dates like the one he had planned. 

“I… oh…” Lance said, smiling softly at the helmet. “Well then I’m honored.” 

“We… we don’t have to take the motorcycle if you’re scared.” Keith suggested, looking concerned. 

That brought Lance back to himself. “Scared? I’m not afraid of anything, mullet. Let’s ride.”

Keith rolled his eyes and laughed, climbing on the bike and starting it up, revving it a couple of times when he was ready for Lance to get on. “Hold on tight.” He instructed, and when Lance’s hands squeezed around him and his body pressed against his back, Keith knew he had made the right choice. Soon they took off, riding down the city streets. Keith got a little thrill whenever they would split the lane and bypass traffic, though it was mostly because Lance would press closer and squeeze tighter. 

Soon enough they were past the outskirts of the city, turning onto a road that was hard to see if you didn’t know it was already there. Keith started to drive a little faster up the winding path he knew by heart. He slowed down when he felt Lance bury his helmet into his back.

When Keith finally stopped, Lance looked up. 

They were on the top of a tall hill, overlooking the city and just far enough away from the light pollution that the stars were covering the sky. Keith turned the bike off and put the kickstand down, Lance got off, staring up at the sky as he pulled his helmet off. Lance stared at the sky in awe and was filled with a sense of wonder he hadn’t felt since he was a child. Suddenly he felt arms around his waist, a chest pressing against his back and a head resting on his shoulder. “I could watch you stare at the sky for hours, but I think it might be more comfortable over there.” Keith’s voice was quiet, gentle, and made Lance feel complete. It made him feel loved. 

Keith pulled away and was walking towards where he had mentioned. Lance turned and looked to wear he was headed, and gasped. Keith sat down on the blanket he had spread out, it was surrounded by different sized and shaped candles. He had some flowers set in a vase on top of a basket and he was patting the spot next to him for Lance to come sit by him. Lance smiled and walked over sitting next to his boyfriend and feeling absolutely giddy. “Keith, I can’t believe this, how did you… how?”

“Is it too much?” Keith asked, frowning. 

“No it… it’s perfect! This is like something out of a romance movie.” Lance gestured around and looked at him, “I don’t know how you did this. It’s too perfect. And you’ve been with me all day. When did you get the time?”

“I know someone who lives near here, they helped me out.” Keith shrugged, “So you like it?”

“I love it.” Lance laughed, leaning over to kiss him. 

Keith smiled and seemed much more at ease. He gestured to the basket, “Are you hungry?”

“Starving.” Lance nodded, opening the basket and pulling out the food, blinking at it.

“I hope you don’t mind but I asked Hunk to make your favorites.” Keith smiled watching Lance’s face light up. 

“How the hell did I get so lucky?” 

Keith leaned back, “I don’t know, but Hunk is an amazing cook.”

“I meant you, dork.” Lance rolled his eyes, sighing and looking out at the view. It was gorgeous and perfect. “I had no idea you were so romantic.”

“I just thought you deserved something like this. I’m glad you like it. I wish I could afford more.” 

Lance leaned over and kissed him again, wrapping his arms around his neck, “Keith this is more than perfect. I couldn’t imagine anything better than being here with you.”   
Keith gave him a small smile and pulled him onto his lap, wrapping his arms around him and kissing him again. “I want to give you the world, and so much more. I would give you the universe if I could.”

Lance had never been told anything so sweet. “I don’t need the universe. I have you.” Keith sighed and rested his forehead against Lance’s. “What’s wrong?” He asked, pulling away.

“It took me a week to put that into words and you can come up with that instantly.” He smirked sheepishly, “You’re too perfect.”

Lance laughed and shook his head, “Look who’s talking.” They sat there for a little longer before their stomachs growled and they remembered that food was a thing their bodies required to function. After they had finished they laid down, staring at the stars. Curled close together they pointed out constellations and made new ones of their own. Then there were streaks of light in the sky, Lance stared at Keith, “You didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?” Keith asked, playing dumb and watching the meteor shower. 

“You planned this because of the meteor shower, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“How did you know?”

“A little pigeon told me about how upset you were when you missed the last one.” Keith smiled.

“Pidge.”

“Yep.”

 

~~~

 

It was the day of the festival. They were all busy setting up their booth with the things they had brought to sell, and the pieces they had decided to enter into the competition. Hunk set the project he and Pidge had put together on the final display pedestal for their entries. It was a large vase made of black mountain clay, and porcelain flowers with what looked like teacups for their base attached to the sides. It was unglazed to let the different clays show their natural beauty. After their area was all set up Keith went with Shiro to go finish their check in procedures. Hunk and Pidge went off in search of snacks and to see if there were any fun things to do while they waited for the judging to start. Lance stayed behind with Allura to finish up decorating their area. 

“Lance, I think I forgot something in the car. I’ll be right back.” Allura said, walking off towards where they had moved the car. 

“Okay, I’ll be right here.” Lance replied, finishing up hanging some battery operated string lights over their table. Once he was satisfied, he sat down, taking a break until they got more decorations. Looking at the nearby booths he felt confident they would draw in a lot of people. He felt fairly confident they would at least win best decorated booth, and a sale or two of their original works would definitely a plus. 

He was daydreaming about them drawing a crowd when a shadow blocked the light in front of him. He blinked and started to greet the person, until he realized who it was. He blanched, his happy mood disappearing instantly. 

Lotor was looking down at him with a smug expression.

“Fancy seeing you here. I didn’t think you would even show up.” Lotor glared. 

Lance crossed his arms and put on a smug look even if he was panicking a little. “Of course I showed up, I have work to sell and present. I don’t know why you’re here though, seeing as you don’t actually do any work. Oh wait, that’s right, you’re a daddy’s boy, aren’t you?”

Lotor sneered, and crossed his arms as well, switching his gaze to the works that were Lance’s, “I wouldn’t expect too much from these pieces of junk. Honestly any talent you had was from my father’s studio, you haven’t improved one bit.” He glanced at Lance who was staring at the floor now. “Probably because you’ve been too busy wasting your time with that fool babying you. Why don’t you come back to me? I would never waste your time by holding back what everyone is actually thinking to save your ego. Like it seems the lot you’ve been with has been doing.” Lotor put a finger on one of the pieces and tipped it over, looking at it like it was something that had been stuck to the bottom of his shoe. 

 

~~~

 

Shiro had finished the paperwork and was showing Keith around when they got seperated. Keith felt more than a little lost in the crowd and was looking around desperately for Shiro. He finally caught a glimpse of him near what was the Galra Ceramics booth, looking unhappy as he talked with a tall man that had a scar across one eye. Then he heard a familiar voice that he had unfinished business with. 

“-nce, you could do so much better if you had the right person looking after you.” Lotor’s voice reached Keith’s ears and he felt the anger inside him start to boil. When he turned and saw that Lotor was talking to Lance, it caught fire. He forgot all about Shiro and made his way over towards Lance. When he saw Lance was clearly upset his anger flooded over him.

Keith walked up and grabbed Lotor’s elbow hard enough to bruise. Lotor tuned and his eyes met Keith’s death glare. “Do you need help with anything?” He all but snarled, failing to sound even a little bit civil.

“Oh it’s you, I didn’t think you would still be around.” Lotor pulled away, looking down his nose at Keith. “I don’t need any help from the likes of you.”

“Then might I suggest an asylum? or prison?” Keith said, moving to stand in front of the booth and block Lance from Lotor’s gaze, “That’s usually where psychopaths like yourself go for help, right? You’d be right at home.”

Lotor realized that Keith wasn’t going to let him speak to Lance any more. “I don’t have to waste my time with rabble like yourself. Lance, darling, you know where to find me if you come to your senses. I might even consider taking you back. As for you,” He glared at Keith, “Go to hell.”

“I’m really not interested in going home with you. Fuck you very much.” Keith fired back, smirking as Lotor huffed and stalked off. As soon as he disappeared in the crowd, Keith turned back towards Lance. He saw the tipped over vase and gently picked it up before walking around the table to wrap his arms around Lance. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. That asshole is gone now. You’re safe.” Keith soothed as best he could. 

“What’s wrong?” Hunk asked, him and Pidge walking up with arms full of snacks such as funnel cakes and nachos. “Lance, are you okay?”

“Who’s life do I need to destroy?” Pidge asked as they both walked around to join them. They set down their snacks as Lance just shook his head and buried himself against Keith more.

“Can you two watch the booth for a bit?” Keith asked, having Lance stand up. They agreed and Keith led Lance back to a more private area. Once they were alone Lance broke down, telling Keith what had happened and why he was so upset. Keith’s grip tightened on him, “I’ll murder him.” 

“Keith…” Lance sniffed, still feeling miserable.

“Sorry, sorry, I just…” Keith shook his head and cupped Lance’s cheek to make him look at him, “You’re so amazing and talented. You don’t deserve any of that being said to you, and that asshole knows it. He’s just trying to make you feel like you need him again. But you’re so much better than him and it scares him so he does this to you. I can’t stand to see you like this.” He kissed his forehead lovingly. “It hurts me, because you deserve so much better. I-... I hate seeing you sad.”

“I-... my work sucks, Keith. He’s right. I’m just a failure.” Lance shook his head. 

“No it doesn’t. Shiro and I were walking around and yours is better than a majority of the other stuff here.” Keith smiled, wiping away his tears.

“You’re just saying that.”

“I might be a little bit biased because I love you so much.” Keith admitted, “That doesn’t change the fact that your work is as gorgeous as you are. Or that it shows so much more skill than a lot of others here. When I first saw you on the wheel you made it seem so easy and flawless.”

Lance snorted a small laugh, “You thought it was easy.”

“Yeah, and I found out it was way harder than you made it look.” Keith smiled, “Your work is beautiful, and I’m pretty sure you’ll have to turn people away because you’ll be sold out.”

Lance shook his head, starting to feel better, “You sound like a fan.”

“Well my apartment is filled with your work, not to brag or anything.” Keith said, pulling Lance into a hug. “It’s worth a few million dollars too.”

Lance laughed and playfully hit his arm, “It is not, you dork.”

“It’s worth that much to me.” He hummed, “Actually maybe a few trillion will make me consider thinking about parting with it.” 

“And you think you aren’t romantic.” Lance grinned, kissing him lovingly.

“Come on, let’s go sell some beautiful art at woefully undervalued prices.”

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.” 

“You love me though.”

“Yeah, I do.” Lance held his hand as they walked back, “Thank you, Keith.”

 

~~~

 

They returned to everyone looking stressed, well, everyone except for Shiro.

“What’s going on?” Lance asked.

“We can’t find Shiro anywhere, and he isn’t answering his phone.” Allura answered, seemingly the most upset about this. 

“Where could he have gone? We looked everywhere.” Hunk frowned.

“Keith, you were with him last, where did you last see him?” Pidge asked, adjusting their glasses.

“I… I saw him at the Galra Ceramics tent.” Keith said, brows furrowed, “He was talking to some big guy with a scar on the side of his face. And he didn’t seem to happy about it.” 

“Zarkon…” Lance said, and everyone seemed ten times more stressed.

“You don’t think they would….” Allura started, looking to Lance, “Would they?”

“I wouldn’t put them above it.” Lance frowned. 

“We have to keep looking.” Keith said, taking charge. “He has to be nearby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who is still reading! Sorry about the temporary, unexpected hiatus! Life y'know? 
> 
> One last chapter after this one, and it should be up soon! 
> 
> Thank you all again for your comments, kudos, and bookmarks. They mean so much to me! 
> 
> After this I will be working on a series of hanahaki fics, with different pairings and endings. So if you want to be sad, there will be those! One of them is up, called Red Poppy. If it's your cup of tea I would appreciate it if you gave it a chance! If not I will be making a Klance one in the future. 
> 
> Thank you all again! <3!


	16. Fired Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for everyone who stuck around to the end! It means so much!
> 
> Extra special thanks to everyone who left comments and kudos! It literally keeps me going. You're all amazing.
> 
> Prepare for a super fluffy cheesy chapter. Also, sorry it's short.

They posted Allura at the booth while they looked around for Shiro. They had split off into two groups, just to be safe. Hunk with Pidge, and Lance with Keith. A half an hour had passed and still no sign of Shiro, making everyone on edge when they all checked back in at the booth. “I don’t get it how can we lose him?” Lance asked, running his hands through his hair, the atmosphere was tense.

“Who did we lose?” 

“Shiro, you know, the guy we’ve been looking for for an hour now? Possibly Shiro-napped.” Lance grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring “Keep up, Shiro.” 

A pause.

Everyone stared at Shiro who was watching them with an amused expression and a sandwich in his hand. “Uh, found me?”

“Fucking hell, Shiro!” Pidge cried as they all gave Shiro a hug “We thought something happened to you.”

“Language, Pidge.” 

“Fucking heck.”

He sighed and shook his head, “Why did you think something happened?”

Hunk decided to explain “Well, you see, Keith said he saw you last talking with Zarkon. Then got distracted by something to do with Lance, and then when he went back to find you and you were gone and we couldn’t find you anywhere. We thought maybe Zarkon had someone do something awful and got you taken out and-”

“Okay, Hunk, I get it.” Shiro smiled, finally free of the hug pile. 

“Where were you, anyway?” Allura asked, the only one still clinging to him.

Shiro held up his sandwich “I got hungry, I guess the line was a little bit too long.”

“I tried calling you.” Keith huffed. “Several times.”

“I was playing a game on my phone and it died.” Shiro shrugged.

“Seriously?” Keith glared, and Shiro just laughed. They had all calmed down enough from losing Shiro to continue sprucing up their booth and selling some of their creations.

 

~~~~

 

“I told you so, Lance.” Keith smiled at his boyfriend lovingly, watching as Lance stacked the empty boxes that once held all of his work. “Sold out before they even started judging the competition pieces.”

“I still can’t believe it.” Lance grinned, turning around and hugging him. “I thought I’d only sell one or two things.” Keith suddenly found himself being kissed. “Thank you for believing in me, babe.”

Keith blinked and raised an eyebrow, “What does that have to do with anything? Your amazing work is what sold.” He kissed Lance lightly, “Plus your pretty face doesn’t hurt.”

There was a retching noise next to them. “Go get a room.” Pidge groaned. Lance laughed and cuddled up to Keith even more obnoxiously. “Urgh, seriously, go walk around. I think you’re scaring people off.” 

“Perhaps Pidge is right.” Allura added from their other side. “There’s still a bit of time before judging and you two will probably have fun walking around.”

“They’re right, Lance.” Keith smirked, tugging him away from the table. “Let’s go walk around.”

“Okay, okay.” Lance grinned, following him. He stayed quiet as Keith led them back to a more quiet area of the festival, a grassy small park with some trees. “Where’re we- woah!” Keith tripped him and pushed him onto the ground. He was caught close to the ground and lowered so it didn’t hurt, but it had Lance’s heart pounding.

Keith sat next to him and turned his face to kiss him, but Lance was unresponsive. He was internally freaking out, and even flinched when Keith pulled back to look at him. “Lance?” He asked, hoping he hadn’t hurt him. “Are you alright?”

“Huh?” Lance blinked when Keith pulled away more. He shook his head and offered a smile, “Yeah I’m fine.” He grabbed for Keith’s hand to pull him close again, but he resisted.

“You looked scared for a second. Is something wrong?” Keith asked, checking around them just in case of Lotor.

“No, nothing’s wrong.” Lance shrugged, “It’s all good here.”

“Lance.” Keith stared him down then sighed when Lance refused to budge. “Fine, don’t tell me then. I’ll just have to go get you a funnel cake.” He kissed him on the cheek one last time before getting up. “Stay put, I don’t want a repeat of what happened with Shiro.”

Lance laughed, shaking his head and feeling completely lucky that Keith was such a great guy. “No way, mullet.” He called, standing and chasing after him, “I need to make sure they put enough powdered sugar and strawberries on it.” 

Keith smiled but didn’t say anything, and listened to Lance go on about other subjects that kept popping up in his mind. “Oh, wait here,” Lance said, spotting a bathroom near the funnel cake stand. “I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” Keith shrugged, staying put while he waited. 

Not long after Lance had disappeared to use the restroom did trouble rear its ugly head. “Oh look what we have here.” Came the smooth voice that grated on Keith’s nerves like no other. “A piece of shit right in my path.”

“I think your path is somewhere else,” Keith retorted, “I don’t see the word ‘psycho’ on this one.”

“Oh how clever, but you do realize that no matter what you think of me it’s not going to change that Lance will be back when he’s done using you.” 

“Using me?” Keith crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow.

Lotor smiled, though it seemed more like a sneer. “As just a play thing. He isn’t the most loyal thing. Surely he’s told you all about his past lovers?”

“The hell are you talking about?” Keith rolled his eyes, “Why should I care if he’s been with other people before? That’s life, and it’s in the past anyway.”

“Even if he’s been known to cheat?” Lotor said, receiving Keith’s best death glare in response. “I guess it doesn’t matter, I don’t know why I should even bother trying to warn you.” 

“Don’t know why you’d even think I would listen to someone like you.” Keith huffed, “Don’t you have something better to do? Or are you really that pathetic?”

Lotor barked out a laugh, “You’re looking at the wrong person if you’re looking for pathetic. Or have you not seen the way Lance begs for forgiveness?” 

That hit a nerve with Keith, he recalled the way Lance flinched earlier when he had playfully knocked him over and put the two together. His fists curled and he tensed up, getting ready to start a fight. Then there was a hand on his shoulder. “He doesn’t do anything to make me have to. He’s an actually decent person.” Lance all but spat towards Lotor, stepping in front of Keith and staring him down. Keith calmed down a little bit, mostly out of shock. 

“Hello, darling.” Lotor smiled, Keith still found it unnerving more than anything.

“I’m not your fucking darling, or anything.” Lance huffed, “I’m not yours. You need to get that through your thick skull and leave us the fuck alone.”

Lotor rolled his eyes, “You’re never rational when you’re mad. It’s unbecoming, Lance. Stop messing around, and I won’t hold it against you.”

“No, Lotor. I’m not messing around. I’m sick of you.” Lance shook his head. “In fact I actually hate you.” Lotor made a movement and Lance flinched for a second, looking like he was going to back down or bolt. Keith grabbed his hand and stood next to him. Lance looked at him, took a breath, then looked back to Lotor. “We. Are. Done. That’s it. If I never see your face again it will be too soon. So stay the hell away from me, and Keith, and everyone else I’m friends with while you’re at it. I’m sick of your shit, and I’m never going to come back. So learn to accept that and stop acting like an idiot.”

Lotor actually backed up a step, and Keith felt a strange feeling of pride at it. “This is it then, there’s no taking it back this time. Are you certain you’d rather go with him to just be tossed aside when he’s done with you?”

“I’m certain anything would be better than being back with you.” Lance replied immediately, fixing Lotor with an even stare. The stand off lasted almost a full minute before Lotor mumbled something that sounded vaguely threatening and stalked off, bumping Keith harshly as he passed. Keith ignored him and turned to Lance, who was grinning back at him. “I did it.” 

Keith squeezed his hand, “You did.” He replied, understanding that that was probably the only time Lance had actually stood up against Lotor and came out alright. His suspicions were confirmed when Lance started to shake a little, even though he was still smiling. “Hey, you’re okay.” Keith said, bringing his other hand up to rub his arm. “You did it, he won’t be back.”

“I-” Lance looked ready to deny it, but then looked at Keith and sighed. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.” Keith smirked, tugging him towards the funnel cakes, “Even if he does I’ll kick his ass again.” That had Lance feeling a little better.

 

~~~

 

Keith had Lance away from the booth longer than they both had planned, when they came back everyone was celebrating and being congratulated. Lance and Keith were immediately greeted with hugs from everyone. “What’s going on?” Lance asked, squished up in Hunk’s arms. 

“We won all the top spots.” Shiro explained, ruffling Keith’s hair. 

“We did?” Keith asked, though he looked grumpy as he fixed his hair. 

“Yeah, Allura and Shiro’s piece got first prize. Me and Hunk’s collaboration got third place.” Pidge was explaining, gesturing towards where their pieces were displayed. Shiro’s and Allura’s boasting a blue ribbon and the largest gathering. Hunk and Pidge’s piece was a large pot made of black mountain with delicate porcelain flowers that seemed to be carved from Pidge’s tea sets attached on the sides. Then the piece Keith and Lance had entered was there, with it’s own ribbon and crowd. “You and Lance got second.”

“Second?” Lance squeaked, as Keith stared at their piece like he was seeing things. “Our child got second!?” He draped himself over Keith and kissed his cheek. 

“Congratulations.” Allura smiled, watching as Keith automatically melted against Lance and turned to share their excitement with a hug. She saw the way Lance and Keith looked at each other, the emotions filling their eyes, and felt relieved that Lance was finally with someone who treated him right. She glanced up at Shiro, who felt her stare and turned to look at her with a knowing smile. They were thinking the same thing. Shiro slipped his hand into hers while everyone was distracted, and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before anyone else could notice. 

 

~~~

 

“Lance, where are you taking me?” Keith asked, riding in the passenger seat his vision blocked by the blindfold Lance had tied on him before throwing him in the car. 

“You’ll see,” was the response Keith received for the twentieth time. Soon enough the car stopped and he heard Lance get out, then his door opened and he was hit with the unmistakable smell of the ocean. “We’re here.” Lance’s voice reached his ears with the sound of waves. Keith reached up to take off the blindfold but his hands were smacked away, “No, not yet.”

“Really? I can tell we’re at the beach.”

“Just trust me.” 

“Fine.” Keith sighed, letting himself be guided down a slope and over sand, the sound of the waves getting closer making him nervous. But he did trust Lance.

Lance then had him stop and walked behind him. “Okay close your eyes.” He ordered, removing the blindfold. “Aaaaand… open.”

Keith opened his eyes and blinked. They were in a small cove, a blanket was spread out with some lights on and around it. Lance’s surfboard stuck in the ground nearby. The ocean was lit by the full moon, the sky was clear, and there were stars covering the sky. “Wow…”

“Do you like it?” Lance asked, and Keith turned to see him staring as he drew designs in the sand with his foot. “I mean. I know you aren’t a fan of the ocean, but it’s kind of where things between us got going and-”

“I love it.” Keith interrupted, kissing him lightly, “Just don’t let me drown.”

“I love you too much to sacrifice you to the sharks.” Lance grinned easily, walking them towards the blanket. 

“You love me?” 

“More than I thought I could love anyone.” He replied easily. “Is that a problem?”

“No.” Keith smirked, “It’s the opposite of a problem. I love you too.” They curled up next to each other watching the waves crash and the way the sea blended into the stars so perfectly it was hard to think of them as two separate things.

“Kintsugi.” Lance said suddenly with a small laugh.

“Kintsugi?” Keith asked, turning to look at him, “That thing Coran was talking about?”

“Yeah.” Lance was looking at Keith already. “I feel like that a lot. A broken thing barely held together with gold.”

“Gold and ceramics are stronger than they’re given credit for.” Keith replied, leaning closer, “Both working together makes something far prettier than any perfect vase.”

“It’s something cracked. Imperfect. How can perfection be less than that?”

“Perfection is boring. I think something’s stronger and more beautiful for having been broken, and not giving up.” 

“Damn it,” Lance laughed, “You’re too amazing.”

“That’s my line.” 

“Shut up and come here.” Lance smiled, leaning up to close the space between them with a kiss.

They realized they were happy, fired up and bickering but full of nothing but love. A perfect balance, pieces coming together to make something better than they had thought possible.


End file.
